Tsunoda needs discipline: 'In England I was playing games'

Yuki Tsunoda has been brought to Italy during this season to live closer to the factory. Franz Tost has to keep an eye on things, and Tsunoda has noticed that this approach works for him, where in England he was more behind a screen.

Mistakes pile up on F1 debut

It's all happened quickly for Tsunoda. The Japanese driver only came to Europe in 2019, and straight away impressed in Formula 3, securing a win. He did the same in Formula 2 the following year, and the speed he showed, especially over one lap, convinced Helmut Marko to put him in the AlphaTauri car as early as 2021.

That, however, has turned out to be a bit too early. Tsunoda has made many mistakes and drove his car into the wall several times. That's not good for a team hoping to save money in the 2021 season. Tsunoda therefore had to move to Italy because his weekends were too chaotic. In Faenze he now finds more peace.

More discipline for Tsunoda

''I think moving to Faenza or near the factory was a good decision. The whole race week, how I built up the pace and made progress during the sessions, that went - with the exception of France - much better compared to the first three races or four races. I'm spending a lot of time with engineers, more than I normally would. So it's really a good thing,'' Tsunoda said to Motorsport.com.

Whereas Tsunoda had a lot of distractions in England, in Italy he is now much more focused on F1. ''Before I moved to Italy, I trained of course, but I mostly played video games, most of the time I spent in front of the screen. Lately I try to think more about racing and with that we have already found a few different things and improved them for the next race. So I feel I'm making steps every race, I could use some more discipline'', Tsunoda concluded.