F1 News

Yuki Tsunoda experiences pressure from Ricciardo: 'I made mistakes'

Tsunoda admits: 'Arrival of Ricciardo creates extra pressure'

3 August 2023 at 09:40
Last update 3 August 2023 at 10:39
2
  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

The driver change at AlphaTauri is causing Yuki Tsunoda to experience extra pressure. Before the Hungarian Grand Prix, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo took over Nyck de Vries ' seat with immediate effect. Speaking to GPblog, Tsunoda looks back on the last two races and sees that the Australian's arrival brings both positives and negatives.

The story is familiar to everyone by now; Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko decided to replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri with the experienced Daniel Ricciardo. In the first Grand Prix [Hungary] that followed, Tsunoda had to watch as he was immediately beaten by Ricciardo in both qualifying and the race. In the Belgian GP, however, the Japanese was again victorious over his teammate. Tsunoda sees Ricciardo's arrival as a positive, but it appears he felt the pressure of his new teammate in recent races.

"His behaviour in the team is really very different from mine. There is a lot to learn from his behaviour," the Japanese starts his story. "I learn a lot, especially when going up against an experienced driver [Ricciardo]. We all know he is fast. It's really challenging, and this situation is completely new to me". Tsunoda sees that the way Ricciardo behaves in the team is almost the opposite of himself. In addition, he also indicates that the media attention for Ricciardo during the first weekend of his comeback was huge.

At Spa-Francorchamps, Tsunoda finished handsomely in tenth place, but he notes that he could already be caught out for mistakes straight away in Hungary. The Japanese driver sees this as the result of the pressure he experienced due to Riccairdo's arrival.'"It's the pressure put on me. That made me want to overcompensate and therefore made some mistakes in the past few weekends," Tsunoda admits.