Franz Tost has no issues with ‘problem child’ Yuki Tsunoda after Helmut Marko was upset with him due to the incident in Silverstone.
The AlphaTauri pair of Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly collided at Silverstone where the damaged part from the Japanese’s car got stuck onto Red Bull’s Max Verstappen’s car which hampred his race. Post-race, Marko was not a happy person.
The Austrian felt Tsunoda needs to calm down a bit especially on the radio and so hey have changed his psychologist/trainer. The Japanese driver admitted to getting agitated sometimes, but notes that he is trying to improve that side.
For team boss Tost, it is not a big issue as he feels having a ‘problem child’ is better than having a holy one. “I like problem childs because these are the real good child who can make something out of it,” he said. “I don’t like the holy childs. Yuki made a mistake; he knows it and he will work on this. He is still in his development process.
“He is fast. He was also fast in Austria. And he will do his way. It takes a little bit of time,” summed up Tost. Regarding the Silverstone incident where Tsunoda and Gasly came together which destroyed both their races, the team boss did speak to both of them.
“Of course, this was a nightmare for the team,” stated Tost. “Because drivers were in position seven and eight. And we knew that Silverstone is difficult for us therefore we really were in good positions. And then Yuki got little bit too impatient, tried to out-brake Pierre, lost the rear and crashed into him.
“And immediately after the race I called Yuki into my office and told him that this is absolutely no-go and that he has to be more disciplined and patient. This was not the first collision between teammates and will not be the last one – hopefully with us – but we saw this in history Formula 1 a couple of times but nevertheless, this in any way must be avoided,” summed up Tost.
With Gasly now confirmed to race for AlphaTauri in 2023, the second seat remains open with Tsunoda certainly a front-runner over the other Red Bull juniors. “If he continues like he did during the season, apart from crashing, I think that he has a good chance to stay with us. It depends on him. If he shows a good performance he will stay, if he doesn’t show a good performance, he is out. Totally easy,” said Tost.
Here’s Helmut Marko and Yuki Tsunoda on his issues
