Gasly puts Tsunoda on the rack: How much time will the Japanese have left?

Halfway through the Formula 1 season, it's time to take stock. At AlphaTauri 'the big talent' Tsunoda would have a good benchmark for Gasly. The Japanese driver has been a disappointment to the fans, although there was a lot of praise for him beforehand. You could also say that Gasly is performing very well.

Statistics

Team: AlphaTauri

Drivers: Pierre Gasly - Yuki Tsunoda

Race: 8-0

Points: 50 - 18

Qualifying duel: 11-0

Qualifying Difference: 0.537s in favour of Gasly

The arrival of the Rookie

It's all happened quickly for Tsunoda. He only made the switch to Europe in 2019, where he won one race in Formula 3, and had to perform immediately in Formula 2 just one year later. There he won three races and finished as the best Rookie in third place in the standings. Helmut Marko immediately moved him up to F1, but wasn't it too soon?

Tsunoda has little experience of racing in Europe and was even moved to Faenza during the season to be more involved in his sport. You might ask if that didn't come a little late to a talent who was already racing in F1? In hindsight, maybe it would have been better for Tsunoda to drive one more year of F2 and become a champion. With Alexander Albon, Red Bull had an excellent alternative.

Gasly demolishes Tsunoda

And so this season what was perhaps predictable has happened: Gasly is beating Tsunoda comfortably. In the race duel it is 8-0 for Gasly. The Japanese hasn't finished a race ahead of the Frenchman when they both crossed the line. In points, the gap is also huge. 50 for Gasly and only 18 for Tsunoda.

On Saturday, too, the difference is huge. Gasly was faster than the Japanese in every qualifying session and with an average difference per qualifying session of 0.537s, AlphaTauri has the furthest apart in terms of teammate times. Not an ideal situation for a team owner who wants to have two drivers as close together as possible.

The problem is that Tsunoda didn't show much improvement on Saturday. While on Sunday he has finished in the points four times in the last six races and is finally enjoying a quiet weekend, the gap on Saturday is huge. In Hungary, he was knocked out of Q1, while his teammate set a time over a second faster in the same session.

Pressure on Tsunoda's shoulders

There's a lot of pressure on Tsunoda's shoulders ahead of the second half of the season. He was seen as a great talent who could potentially move on to Red Bull Racing, but his performance alongside Gasly isn't doing his career much good. With Dennis Hauger, Juri Vips and Liam Lawson all in good shape, it could also just be the end of Tsunoda.

Still, it is to be hoped that Marko will keep faith with the Japanese driver. Tsunoda has only been in Europe for a short time and will have to get used to a lot of things. The move to Faenza already gave a lot of rest to his weekend, and at least ensured a more stable performance. Hopefully he will work hard this summer to close the gap on Saturday as well.

Want to read more of this kind of analysis? Then also check out the analyses of the internal duel at Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull Racing!