The rise of AlphaTauri's new driver: Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda was announced earlier today as AlphaTauri's new driver. In 2021, he will replace Daniil Kvyat and will become Pierre Gasly's teammate. But who exactly is the new Japanese driver on the grid?

Through the years

Tsunoda was born on May 11 2000 in the Japanese city of Sagamihara. In 2010 he started his professional karting career. After six years in karts, Tsunoda got the chance to drive two races in the Japanese Formula 4 championship in 2016 and found success on his debut: the then 16-year-old Japanese finished on the podium in both races.

His talent was immediately noticed by Honda, who included him in the Honda Formula Dream Project. For Honda, Tsunoda drove two full seasons in the Japanese Formula 4 Championship. In 2017 he finished third, while in 2018 he won the championship.

Very busy 2019, breakthrough in 2020

In 2019, Tsunoda raced two different classes in one season: The Euroformula Open Championship, where he finished fourth with one win. In this he competed against drivers such as Marino Sato and Liam Lawson. Lawson, like Tsunoda, is a member of the Red Bull Junior team. Tsunoda also drove in the FIA ​​Formula 3 Championship. In this he finished ninth with one race win.

Although 2019 was not his strongest year, in 2020 he got the chance to race in the FIA ​​Formula 2 Championship. Tsunoda was a real star in this class. He fought very hard for every position and managed to win three races. In the end, the Japanese driver was beaten by Mick Schumacher and Callum Ilott in the final classification. Helmut Marko saw the Japanese make great overtaking maneuvers in F2 and it turned out to be enough for a seat at AlphaTauri in 2021.

This article was written and originally published by Bonne on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.