F1 News
Tsunoda on fight with Hamilton: 'I tried to copy Alonso'
- GPblog.com
Yuki Tsunoda has now started his third season in Formula 1 and is still with the AlphaTauri team. In Formula 1's Beyond the Grid podcast, the Japanese driver says he has already learned a lot from the other F1 drivers, especially Fernando Alonso.
Alonso and Hamilton in Hungary 2021
At the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes made a mistake that dropped Lewis Hamilton all the way to the back of the field. This forced the Briton to overtake many drivers, including Alonso and Tsunoda. The seven-time world champion was soon ahead of the Japanese driver, but with the Spaniard, Hamilton had a lot of trouble.
"I learned a lot from a lot of drivers especially when I stepped up to Formula 1, especially from Fernando Alonso. In Hungary 2021, when Lewis tried to overtake me, obviously I tried everything I could to defend as much as possible to Lewis, but he passed me in like four laps. Fernando on the other hand, while Alpine and AlphaTauri had similar car performance, was defending like more than ten laps."
Hamilton and Tsunoda in Turkey
In Turkey, Tsunoda and Hamilton met again, and this time the AlphaTauri driver took a different approach. "In Turkey there was another situation where I had to defend from Lewis. I tried to copy Fernando as much as possible and that time I was actually able to defend for eight laps from him," Tsunoda told the podcast.