Tsunoda Already Learning 'A Lot' From His Teammate Daniel Ricciardo

F1
Monday, 18 December 2023 at 21:00
ricciardotsunoda daniel aphatauri rbcp

Yuki Tsunoda suggested his new AlphaTauri teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, has already taught him "quite a lot of things."

The Japanese AlphaTauri F1 driver saw three different teammates throughout the 2023 season, and he beat all of them separately and all together in terms of points amassed.

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly mentioned during his appearance on Beyond the Grid podcast that Tsunoda is "extremely fast' and usually doesn't get enough credit for it as he gets overlooked.

The 23-year-old outperformed his Australian teammate in three of the last five races of the season and showed his qualities. On the other hand, he told the media he had also already learned a lot from the Honey Badger.

"Always your team-mate is your biggest rival, but I think he's giving good feedback. I'm learning from him already with quite a lot of things, especially how he behaves towards the team."

Ricciardo is one of the favorite drivers among all the Formula One fans, but also throughout the F1 paddock. Tsunoda shared he was able to observe how the 34-year-old behaves which taught him a lot.

"It is quite different to me, especially as it is quite the opposite, which I wanted to fix, and he's a really good reference driver."

The combination of the feedback from the two drivers led AlphaTauri to introduce multiple effective upgrades, which significantly increased the pace of their car in the last few races of the season. The Japanese driver added:

"We're quite different drivers with our style, and what we require from the team about the car is different, and that's actually a good thing. I can have a good idea of good options or something different with a different style, so it gives me options to go even faster

In general, Ricciardo has been mentioned by most of the experts as the potential replacement for Sergio Perez in Red Bull, but do you think Tsunoda might have a chance if he outperformed his teammate next season>