Yuki Tsunoda opens up on taking help from a psychologist/trainer since his F2 days amid word from Helmut Marko of needing one in F1.
Ever since Tsunoda has made his F1 debut last year with AlphaTauri, he has been in the news for some brilliant drives but also for his radio chatter which many take it as lack of patience and being a hot-headed young driver in the field.
When the results comes through, it is all fine but when it doesn’t, it ends up as a frustration. His crashes has been in the news as well with the latest one coming at Silverstone when he collided with his teammate Pierre Gasly.
It damaged Gasly’s car and forced him to retire and a subsequent penalty to Tsunoda left AlphaTauri with no points. The Japanese driver duly apologised for the incident and in further unfortunate scene, the debris from the car got stuck to Max Verstappen’s car.
“We had our contact, fully my fault,” said Tsunoda. “I straight away apologised to the team. And especially to Pierre. Of course, I mean, the team are disappointed because especially we were fighting the points. And also, we expect it’s going to be difficult race weekend in Silverstone but we are running in the points, so we lost the points.
“I couldn’t say anything more than say sorry. And, also on top of it, my debris went into Max’s car as well. So, I mean, it was a really bad day for me. So… yeah.” Post-race, Marko was not hugely pleased as he noted of ‘problem child’ Tsunoda needing psycologist.
“We have organised a kind of psychologist to work with him, because he continued to rant in the corners, so that inhibits performance,” Marko said to Servus TV after Silverstone race. “We should keep our emotions in check. Thank God Max is calm, our problem child in this respect, not only in this respect, is Tsunoda.
“He explodes on the radio, you wouldn’t believe it.” As noted above, the radio chatter from the side of Tsunoda has already become famous in the course of the one and a half years. The Japanese driver acknowledged about getting a bit overheated in situations.
He was working with a psychologist since his F2 days but has Marko stated, they have hired a new one to try and use his adrenaline in the right direction. “I was already working with the other psychologist/trainer from Formula 2,” said Tsunoda. “I’m really happy… 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 should be able to help me to develop my performance in Formula 2, consistency. Yeah. I will say they hired a new psychologist/trainer from, I will say, four races before. I don’t know [if] currently 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.
“But yeah, I think definitely one of the limitations is that I start to get quite overheated… overheated, especially my brain, in the car. But I was in some situation that makes it slightly better. But I know that I have to improve myself, those parts, to have more consistency. So hopefully the new trainer will work well and we can work well for the future,” summed up Tsunoda.