AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost said Yuki Tsunoda lacks more "patience and discipline" but still sees the young driver in the process of developing in F1
Yuki Tsunoda's future at AlphaTauri has been widely speculated, especially after Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko's recent statements calling him a "problem child". And Franz Tost even declared that the Japanese driver's permanence with the Faenza base depends only on himself.
Tsunoda received a lot of criticism mainly for his behavior with the engineers on the radio during races, with shouting and cursing. So much so that Marko revealed that the team decided to hire a psychologist to accompany the young man.
The incident at the British GP, in which the Japanese driver crashed into teammate Pierre Gasly, compromising the race for both, was also the reason for a good ear pulling from AlphaTauri. Tost was then asked about Tsunoda's future, and said that the 22-year-old driver has 11 more races to show his best version.
"If he continues to do what he's been doing this season, bumps aside, I think he has a good chance to stay with us," said the Austrian. "It just depends on him. If he shows a good performance, he stays; if he doesn't show a good performance, he will leave. It's very simple," he pointed out.
"We can see that the gradient of his learning curve is going up. He has done a good job, but he needs to control himself in certain situations, be more disciplined. We'll see in the second half of the season," continued the manager.
About the maneuver at Silverstone, Tost said he called Yuki to talk and stressed that it was the kind of move "absolutely forbidden" and that he needed to be "more disciplined and patient. "He made a mistake, he knows it and he will work on it. Yuki is still in the process of development," the Austrian added, saying further that he considers the Japanese to be a fast driver, but that he was rash in the dispute with Gasly.
"It wasn't the first collision between teammates and it won't be the last - hopefully not with us - but it could have been avoided in some way," he stressed.
Finally, Tost talked about Marko's statements about "problem child" Tsunoda, saying that, in a way, this is a positive thing. "I like problem children, because they are really good and can do something with it. I don't like saintly children," he concluded.