AlphaTauri's Head of Performance, Guillaume Dezoteux highlighted Yuki Tsunoda's learning after his first year in Formula 1 and argued that the driver's performance has increased a lot after he accumulated knowledge in the category
The Canadian GP was a real disaster for Yuki Tsunoda, who spun on the exit of the pit-lane and crashed into the wall on his way out of the pits - throwing away his race and that of AlphaTauri, who also failed to get a rhythm with Pierre Gasly. However, the Japanese driver's 2022 season has been far superior to his debut season in terms of points, which has earned some praise from the Italian team's performance boss Guillaume Dezoteux.
"Yuki [Tsunoda] has taken a big step forward compared to last year," Dezoteux began. "He has more experience, he knows the tracks, he knows his engineers and mechanics, so the relationship is constantly improving," said the performance boss.
"I think it's a very difficult and challenging championship for the younger drivers," Dezoteux explained. "There are few opportunities for testing, winter testing is very crowded and there are many things to understand about the car, so it is difficult to dedicate time to the driver and let him learn about the car," he said.
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Tsunoda has 11 championship points after nine races played, just five less than Gasly. Last year, to have an idea, the Japanese driver had nine with the same number of races - the Frenchman, on the other hand, had already scored 40. With a less powerful car in 2022, the performance of the two drivers has become closer.
"I think it gets a little bit mixed up with the rookie driver discovering the tracks and the cars," he opined. "For sure he is growing a lot since last year, and now he can be more consistent, his feedback has improved a lot, his engineers understand what he needs to be fast. And he got closer to Pierre [Gasly], which is very positive because he's also pushing Pierre, so I'm very happy with the situation now," he pointed out.
AlphaTauri's drop in production is made explicit in the standings when compared to last year. While the team has 27 points in 2022, it had 48 last year after nine races played. However, Dezoteux sees a strong influence of bad luck on the results the team has achieved so far in the championship.
"It's been a difficult start to the season for us," Dezoteux continued. "The pace of the car is definitely worth more than the points we have so far. In the first three races of the season we were very unlucky, almost every time the safety-car came out right after our pit-stop in the race, so there's not much we can do about that," he lamented.
"In Imole we had a strong weekend, and also in Miami - a lot of mistakes, but overall we were more competitive," he pointed out. "Barcelona has been a challenge. The track condition, the very hot track temperature, was something that really didn't suit our package and we need to improve," he admitted.
"Since Monaco, the car has shown good performance in the twisty low-speed corners and we have plenty of mechanical grip," he pointed out. "We found a way to make the car comfortable," Dezoteux finished.