Exclusive: Yuki Tsunoda on managing mental & physical F1 challenges, remaining '22 targets & Japan return

Yuki Tsunoda is in his second season in Formula 1 and is pushing to earn a third year with AlphaTauri, with it still unclear as yet which two drivers they are going to have competing for them in 2023.

A driver with fantastic speed, Tsunoda has striven to add more consistency and a cooler perspective to his racing, with it clear he has been working on that as his F1 career has developed.

Indeed, his post-Zandvoort reaction spoke volumes, after it was wrongly levelled at his team they’d somehow on purpose sent him back out on track after he’d felt an issue to try and alter the result in sister team Red Bull’s favour, from some irate quarters on social media.

That ultimately is another element that modern F1 drivers have to deal with, though, especially in the Drive to Survive era, and Tsunoda’s outlook is one of someone who has clearly put the work in to deal with it.

Speaking to Give Me Sport exclusively, he explained:

“I’m recently controlling that stuff quite well. Much better than last year.

“I recognise some people [speaking about] those situations, but I don’t read actual comments from them. I don’t see much social media anyway. I really don’t care! My performance won’t be affected by anything from people, especially those who are against us, it won’t affect my performance or my mood or anything. It just feels like, ‘oh, there’s people saying those things.’ And it’s funny.

“I was surprised to be honest, how people reacted to it. It was just a very simple thing that there was a car issue. And the engineers at first didn’t recognise the issue in the data, that’s why we restarted.

“Then we found the issue in the data and that’s why we stopped. Simple as that. And people love to make drama or something like that and