Tsunoda: F2 experience will help with new 18-inch F1 wheels

As part of grand prix racing's rules overhaul, which includes a shift to ground effect cars, Pirelli is also moving to different sized tyres.

It has ditched the previous 13-inch wheels for 18-inches, which it believes is much closer to what is relevant to road-going cars.

F2 made the switch to 18 inch wheels back in 2020, when Tsunoda had an impressive rookie campaign with Carlin to earn an F1 berth with AlphaTauri for last season.

As he heads into his second season in F1, the Japanese thinks that what he learned in 2020 could put him in good stead for the challenges ahead.

Having driven the F1 2022 car in the simulator, and taken part in last year's post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test, Tsunoda thinks that the experience of the new tyres is similar to what he faced in F2.

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"The car generally feels a lot sharper, with sharper movement and over a long run, the bigger wheels give you a completely different feeling to that on the old 13-inch tyres," he explained.

"I've experienced this feeling before, because when I raced in Formula 2 we made the same switch to 18-inches and I felt the same difference there. It felt like a similar step.

"So I think I can use the experience I had in F2. But it's not just the tyres that change this year, the new car means there are lots of changes for 2022 to learn about and adapt to."

Tsunoda finished third in F2 in 2020 and learned valuable lessons on the 18-inch wheels

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Tsunoda is coming off the back of a rollercoaster rookie season in F1, where an impressive debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix was followed by a run of incidents and crashes that shattered his confidence.

But having turned things