Gasly Thinks 'Extremely Fast' Tsunoda 'Doesn't Get Enough Credit'
F1Friday, 10 November 2023 at 09:00
Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly shared his opinion about his former teammate and current driver of Scuderia AlphaTauri Yuki Tsunoda.
Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda used to drive together for AlphaTauri in seasons 2021 and 2022. The driver duo achieved the sixth position for their team in 2021 and 9th in 2022.
The Alpine driver recently appeared on an episode of F1's "Beyond the Grid Podcast," where he talked about his relationship with the Japanese driver and his skills. Gasly said:
"It’s important first of all to say, I had this sort of bromance relationship with Yuki [Tsunoda], it doesn’t take anything away from the talent and the speed that he had."
Tsunoda is four years younger than Gasly and had less experience when he joined Alphatauri in 2021. The Japanese driver mentioned he saw the Frenchman as his older brother and mentor. Gasly added:
"And I always said it, I think Yuki doesn’t get enough credit and recognition for the speed that he has on Sundays."
Tsunoda shows his pace every once in a while like during the 2023 United States Grand Prix in which he finished eighth and collected one more point for the fastest lap of the race.
"If he’s on these days and he controls his emotion, and he controls his eagerness and his language, he can be extremely fast."
Yuki Tsunoda is said to have got his seat in AlphaTauri thanks to the team's strong ties with Honda. Gasly thinks people often undervalue the speed and talent of the Japanese driver.
And I think people sort of feel a bit undervaluing what he’s going to bring.
On the other hand, the Frenchman admitted there has always been a competition between him and his teammate when it came to races, and he wanted to "destroy" Tsunoda.
"But even though we were having fun and had a very good relationship, whenever I was getting ready for a practice, qualifying or a race, I wanted to destroy him. Not in a bad way, don’t get me wrong, but I wanted to outperform him every single session."
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