Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko defined Yuki Tsunoda as a "problem child" and revealed that the Japanese will have a psychologist to improve his performance
AlphaTauri's British GP was one to forget. Yuki Tsunoda made a mistake when trying to overtake at turn three and caused a collision with teammate Pierre Gasly as the cars battled for seventh place. The Japanese driver apologized to the Frenchman after the race and took the blame for the collision.
Since last season, Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko has been working to improve Tsunoda's performance. Confirmed for 2023 with the Faenza-based team, the young driver even moved to Italy in 2021. Now, Marko has revealed that he will have a psychologist to also make him more prepared.
"Thank God Max is calm, our problem child is Tsunoda," he said in an interview with German website Motorsport-total. "We have hired a psychologist to work with him, because he kept complaining in the corners [after the accident], and it affects performance," he added.
Gasly abandoned with rear wing problems, while Tsunoda, with punishment, dragged on to finish 14th and last among the drivers who completed the race. AlphaTauri is only seventh in the Constructors' World Championship with 27 points, 24 behind sixth-placed Alfa Romeo.
With the Austrian GP this weekend, Yuki hopes to forget the problems of Silverstone and have good results at the Red Bull Ring.
"I am happy that we can race again after only a few days to put the Silverstone race behind us. I couldn't do anything about the collision after the start and then unfortunately I had the incident with Pierre. We discussed it as a team and now we move on," he vented.
"Looking at the performance here last year, I hope we can be quite competitive," he closed.