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AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda admits that he still suffers from what he characterised as his brain getting “overheated” behind the wheel.
After Tsunoda collided with team-mate Pierre Gasly in last week’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Helmut Marko subsequently revealed that Red Bull had brought in a psychologist to work with Tsunoda to improve his calmness.
This change was made several races before Silverstone, but the objective is to improve the 22-year-old’s mental control in the car. In particular, Marko told Servus TV that the big problem is Tsunoda “continued to rant in the corners, so that inhibits performances”.
Tsunoda’s radio communications have been a focus for the team, ever since it was taken aback by his excitable messages during the post-season Abu Dhabi test in 2020. But he has made progress with this, which has helped him to produce a good level of performance during 2022 despite only being rewarded by three points finishes.
Tsunoda has always been frank and honest about his weaknesses and admitted that this is still an area where he needs to improve.
However, having worked with the new psychologist for a limited amount of time, he’s unsure whether there has been a positive effect.
Tsunoda had previously worked successfully with a different psychologist/trainer, who he credited with being key to making the step up to F1 last year possible thanks to enhancing his performances and consistency during his Formula 2 campaign in 2020. They continued to work together in F1 prior to the recent change.
“I was already working with the other psychologist/trainer from Formula 2,” said Tsunoda when asked about the change.
“I was really happy working with him and also he was part of the reason [I was] able to step up to Formula 1. He helped me to develop my performance in Formula 2 and consistency.
“They hired a new psychologist trainer from, I will say, four races before. I don’t know currently [if] it’s working well or not. If it’s working well, I think maybe I didn’t have the crash.
“But I have to take a bit more time because he has to understand more about myself, and also we have to understand what direction we have to take.
“I think definitely one of the limitations is that I start to get quite overheated, especially my brain, in the car.
“I was in some situations that make it slightly better, but I know that I have to improve myself, those parts, to have more consistency.”
Although discussion of Tsunoda’s work with a new psychologist arose following the clash at Silverstone, his radio communications were relatively calm during this phase of the race.
The incident occurred on lap 11 of the race, with Gasly running seventh ahead of Tsunoda. Tsunoda had briefly got ahead of Gasly on the inside of Club Corner on the previous lap, only for Gasly to reclaim the position after hanging on around the outside and making use of the runoff.
Gasly reclaimed the position into Vale, but Tsunoda was able to close through the early corners of the lap and dived to the inside at the Village right-hander, with the rear stepping out and sending him into Gasly.
Although Tsunoda’s move was, by definition, ill-considered given the outcome, aside from an expletive uttered shortly after the collision once he had got going, there were no obvious signs of a lack of calmness. However, he can certainly be accused of costly impatience.
The team had informed him he had overtake available so was happy for the duo to fight, with Tsunoda seemingly quicker, partly thanks to running a little less downforce after Gasly added a Gurney flap to his rear wing for wet qualifying.
Tsunoda was hit with a five-second penalty for causing the collision, while the team held him responsible for the crash.
Technical director Jody Eggington said after the race that “we will sit down and have the necessary discussions, as the move Yuki made today was not the best and needs to be avoided”.
Tsunoda accepted responsibility for the collision and confirmed he’s apologised to the team and Gasly.
“We had contact, fully my fault so I straight away apologised to the team and especially Pierre,” said Tsunoda.
“Of course, the team was disappointed because we were fighting in the points. We expected it was going to be a difficult race weekend in Silverstone, but we were running in the points and lost the points.
“I couldn’t say anything more than sorry. And also on top of it, debris went into Max’s car as well, so it was a really bad day for me.”
