Yuki Tsunoda "easy" Bahrain weekend gave false sense of security

Yuki Tsunoda ahead of Mexico City Grand Prix — Photo: © LAT Images

AlphaTauri

Tsunoda "easy" Bahrain weekend gave false sense of security

Tsunoda finished with points on debut but faltered thereafter

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Monday 3 January 2022 15:40

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Yuki Tsunoda has conceded to carrying "too much confidence" into his rookie year in F1 after a weekend that was "too easy" in Bahrain provided a false sense of security.

The Japanese driver was drafted into the AlphaTauri lineup as part of Red Bull's junior programme after impressing in F2 and began with a strong showing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

But a qualifying crash at the next race in Imola triggered a snowball effect that saw Tsunoda struggle throughout a season marred with incidents and a lack of pace compared to Pierre Gasly.

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Asked in an end-of-season interview, including GPFans, if he felt F1 was easy after Bahrain, Tsunoda replied: “To be honest, yes.

"I would say I had too much confidence. I was feeling [it was] too easy, I will say for Formula 1 because so far I didn't have like massive shunt things, strange things.

"All was completely under control, that's why I was expecting [it to be] easy.

“But as soon as I had a crash in Imola…actually, after Imola I was okay still. My confidence was okay.

"I just felt that instead, the incident I had in qualifying was just unlucky, and also I expect it's going to happen before the braking zone.

“As soon as I began crashing consistently, I started to feel like [there was] a question mark about my confidence and also it started to feel quite difficult, much [more] difficult than I was thinking.

"Especially how I build up through the race week, the approach was completely wrong, I would say."

Explaining the differences between junior categories and F1, Tsunoda continued: “I was taking the same approach as Formula 2, which is a completely different format. They have only one free practice and straight into qualifying.

“I was always trying to nail it, or try to push from the first push in pre-practice, which in Formula 1, it's not necessary to do that, because there are only three free practice [sessions].

"This time, especially in Formula 1 if you do that, there's a lot of risk that you go into the wall and lose a lot of track time and also have to rebuild the confidence and lots of things are going to be negative.

“Yes, as soon as I realised that, it was very hard to find this answer as to how I can improve the confidence because at that point my confidence was completely zero.

“I never had that in the past. My confidence went completely, almost nothing.

“I had a really hard time to gain or rebuild this confidence as I had in Bahrain, and yes, there are also many things I struggled [with].”