Gasly: ‘Emotional’ Tsunoda will learn and improve
Pierre Gasly believes AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will learn to control his emotions better in the future, after openly criticising his team at the weekend.
The Japanese rookie came under fire for saying “I can’t f***ing believe this car” on his way back to the pit lane after being knocked out in Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Gasly started P12 in his lowest grid slot of the season, but Tsunoda expressed an opinion that made him question if he was driving the same machinery as his team-mate.
“It’s always different feedback compared to my team-mate, even when we try the opposite,” Tsunoda said in the immediate aftermath of qualifying.
“I have a little bit question mark [if it] is the same car – of course it’s the same car, but just the character of the car is just too different.
“Maybe, of course, it’s a different driving style. But yeah, I don’t know, I don’t understand what happened, why I’m struggling this much.”
The Japanese rookie backtracked on his comments soon afterwards, but he will undoubtedly have some rebuilding of trust to do within the AlphaTauri garage.
I wanted to apologize for my comments today. I didn’t mean to criticize the team who have done a great job all weekend. I was just frustrated with my performance. Full send tomorrow🚀
— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) May 8, 2021
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Jenson Button weighed in and said Tsunoda should have dealt with the issue in private, rather than publicly chastising his car’s performance on team radio, with it being broadcast worldwide.
Gasly offered advice to his rookie team-mate, too, saying that he will begin to control his emotions and respond well to setbacks as his fledgling career in Formula 1 progresses.
“Yuki obviously had a tough qualifying yesterday, and he is quite emotional,” the Frenchman told reporters on Sunday.
“So I think it’s a bit of emotional control. But he’s also young and I believe he will learn and improve on this side of things.”
Gasly claimed the final point on offer at the Spanish Grand Prix, coming home just behind Esteban Ocon’s Alpine but he was left frustrated after a five-second penalty, given after he overshot his grid slot in Barcelona.
The Frenchman has out-scored his team-mate by eight points to two so far this season, with Tsunoda looking convert his early promise into points finishes in upcoming races.
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