Tsunoda: 'There I tried to put an amazing lap, a dream lap'

Yuki Tsunoda started his first season in Formula 1 promisingly by finishing ninth in Bahrain, but since then his performance has gone downhill rapidly. The Japanese driver also sees the need for improvement.

Tsunoda again made an error of judgement during free practice in Monaco, which earned him criticism from Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko. Tsunoda admits he expected too much of himself at the start of the season, which regularly led to him making the wrong decision.

"Especially from Bahrain I went really, really good, even having mistakes having dropped to Q2, but still went well and got points in the first race," Tsunoda told the F1 podcast Beyond the Grid. The driver then started to expect more from himself. "I think from there, especially, I aimed quite high [with my] expectations for the future. Especially Imola, the next race…I was even aiming top five, like that."

High Expectations Tsunoda

However, that was not a good plan according to Tsunoda. "In qualifying [at Imola] I tried to put an amazing lap, a dream lap. Especially in Q1 you don’t have to do that kind of stuff in Q1. My adrenaline and motivation was like that and I went into the wall. So I think in the beginning of the year I was really expecting high and I was aiming too high."