Tsunoda’s heated and often expletive-ridden team radio messages attracted a lot of attention this season and drew mixed responses from fans and observers.
Speaking on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Tsunoda accepted that his temper behind the wheel and his team radio communications are a “main topic” to improve in the coming races, admitting he doesn’t know why he gets so hot under the collar.
“Even me I don’t know why I get to heat up,” Tsunoda said.
“I really like to do lap by myself maybe, naturally, like I don’t want to have something disturb my push lap. Especially if I [am] having quite good lap.
“I think most of the drivers have same feeling, but just… yeah it’s I think controlling myself is now main topic for me, 100%.”
While some appreciate the young Japanese driver’s passion, his post-qualifying outburst in Spain, where he was dumped out of Q1 far behind teammate Pierre Gasly, later prompted Tsunoda to apologise to his team.
Tsunoda admitted his fiery Barcelona comments, in which he openly questioned the Faenza team, were over the limit.
“In Barcelona I was like fully out of control. I don’t have to, but just I pressed the radio – I don’t know why – but just shouted at them,” he said. So, this is definitely now my weak point.
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT02
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“I think radio communication is the most important thing for Formula 1, especially. So [there] is just no point to shout on the radio. If you want to have something, advice from them, you just have to be really calm and tell what the issue is.
“But if you just shout, they can’t do anything, you know. So, I think radio is my main topic for now.”
Tsunoda added he appreciated the support he received from AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost, who played down his Barcelona outburst.
“He’s really calm and he always, I think, supports drivers,” Tsunoda added.
“Also, for example, he knows Sebastian Vettel well, he saw directly how he managed to be a successful driver. So, he doesn’t force me to do like this or like that, just try to tell me the advice.
“Even after Imola he just laughed at me. Not like in a bad way, you know, like “shit happens”. Or “I think you push too much” and [things] like that. He didn’t say like ‘what did you do?’ and ‘what is it, these mistakes?’
“And even after Barcelona when I was saying [on the] radio this really bad thing, even he said like ‘you don’t have to worry about radio, this radio is almost nothing, so just focus on driving and talk to engineer about what was the issue’, and ‘you have to make the car do what you want’, you know?
“For me he’s kind, and he also sometimes [can] be strict, but it’s in a good way.”
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