Yuki Tsunoda ready to embrace pressure to aid performance in 2022

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda has said that he is ready to build on his rookie season with an improved 2022 campaign, and says that the pressure to now perform with a year under his belt will push him on.

The Japanese driver showed superb pace in Formula 2 to earn his seat in Formula 1 for the 2021 campaign, and his testing performance in Bahrain over the winter period last year underlined his obvious pace at the wheel.

Indeed, he showed good speed throughout the season but it was, perhaps naturally in his first year, a campaign that was littered with mistakes and meetings with the crash barriers.

Towards the end of the campaign, though, he appeared to rein things in a little bit and the consistency improved, with a fine fourth place being achieved at the final race in Abu Dhabi.

Now, armed with a year of F1 experience under his belt, he is ready to use the pressure that comes with that as fuel for motivation:

“I’m really looking forward to racing again,” said Tsunoda after AlphaTauri launched their 2022 car.

“I feel I have a much better understanding of what I have to do than I did a year ago, I know how to prepare in order to perform well.

“I know what my weak points are, I have all of my experience from last year to build on and I have been working hard to be ready.

“Last year, if anything unexpected or unusual happened, I could not adapt quick enough to deal with the situation, which is why I struggled in a lot of races.

“I ended last year well, with a fourth place in Abu Dhabi, so I want to carry that momentum into this new season.

“I feel more pressure to perform now than I did last year, but it’s a good pressure, which is motivation for me when I’m training.”