Tost says Tsunoda is in ‘good shape’ after changing diet

Yuki Tsunoda’s fitness has reportedly improved after a move from England to Italy according to AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost.

Partway through his rookie season, the 21-year-old moved from England to Italy and joked that his fitness improved after he stopped ordering so many UberEats.

Tsunoda himself said he was not as fit as he should be and said he should follow the example set by fitness fanatic Tost. However, the team principal thought the Japanese youngster was being a bit harsh on himself.

“I think Yuki meant everything a little bit ironically!,” Tost said as reported by Autosport.

“If a young driver comes to F1, he is totally surprised about the forces he’s faced with in F1. It’s braking, it’s fast corners, slow corners with right hand/left hand forces against the neck and so on and so on.

“But Yuki was fit last year, otherwise he couldn’t have finished here in Bahrain in the ninth position. Of course, he realised as all the other young drivers realise, that you have to do even more physical training.”

getting acquainted with a new beast, @yukitsunoda07 made the most out of his time in Bahrain 👌

— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) March 12, 2022

Tost also said the best training was achieved by being in the car.

“Once you sit in the car, once you have done a race, you feel where you have the pain,” he said.

“Then you can talk to your trainer, to your physiotherapist, how to change the physical training to strengthen the muscles where you were suffering. And regarding Yuki, he came to Faenza, and his trainer was with him.

“And he had to train twice a day in the morning and in the afternoon, until it was very good. The physical fitness because of the training improves. Therefore, I think that Yuki this year is in very good shape. But once more, he was not so bad last year, it’s just as a newcomer in F1, and you can ask all the others as well, it’s something new.

“It’s F1, these cars, they are so fast. I don’t know any driver who is not suffering after the first races or after the first runs in an F1 car, because it’s very, very demanding. And Yuki trained a lot. And he’s in a good shape. And I’m looking forward to seeing him this season in the car.”

Tost also joked that he doubted Tsunoda would be joining him for an early morning run.

“My morning runs – Yuki does not stand up at five o’clock to run with me. He looks to me and maybe he thinks I have a bird in my head!”