Pink Bull has made certain Yuki Tsunoda has no doubts over their precedence after he grew to become the workforce’s newest driver.
Tsunoda will workforce up with Max Verstappen, who lies second within the drivers’ championship after the opening two rounds. Pink Bull’s motorsport marketing consultant Helmut Marko mentioned this week they want him to “support Max strategy-wise,” which Tsunoda acknowledged at this time.
The brand new Pink Bull driver mentioned his goal is to “mainly be as near Max as potential, which anyway offers good outcomes for the workforce, additionally it permits the workforce to assist different methods within the race.”
“They’ve clearly mentioned the primary precedence is Max,” he defined within the FIA press convention at Suzuka, “which I utterly perceive as a result of he’s a four-times world champion and to this point already in the previous few races even in troublesome conditions he carried out effectively.
“So [my goal is] to be as shut as potential to Max. Additionally, to assist the event as effectively with my suggestions. They were very happy with my feedback in Abu Dhabi [testing], so simply proceed that. However the primary precedence is to be near Max – which received’t be straightforward, for certain.”
Tsunoda is Verstappen’s third totally different workforce mate within the final 4 rounds. His predecessors Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez lagged far behind Verstappen’s tempo within the Pink Bull.
Nevertheless Tsunoda doesn’t anticipate his new workforce mate will provide him a lot assist in understanding easy methods to get the perfect out of their automotive.
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“Probably not, to be trustworthy, I believe even when I tapped his shoulder and requested concerning the automotive, I don’t assume he’s going to say the reality, you recognize?” he mentioned. “So I’ll simply attempt to uncover it myself within the knowledge, how he’s driving. Additionally on onboard movies, I already checked a number of movies from him within the final two grands prix.”
He mentioned he hasn’t skilled the automotive’s “trickiness” to this point in his post-season take a look at in final yr’s chassis or his simulator runs since becoming a member of the workforce final week. “I’ll really feel it myself and I’m certain it additionally depends upon driving fashion. It is going to behave somewhat bit totally different.
“As soon as I really feel the automotive, in my 5 years of expertise, I consider that may give me some concepts to kind it out. And if I actually battle, no matter, no, I nonetheless don’t assume I’ll ask him. I’ll simply attempt to uncover it with my engineers.
“Up to now, they’ve been very useful. [My engineer] already gave some concepts about what sort of traits give drivers little or no confidence. That data is already caught in my head and it’s fairly clear. So I’ll simply see the way it goes after [first practice].”
Whereas Pink Bull confirmed Lawson the door after simply two races, Tsunoda mentioned he hasn’t been given a deadline to become familiar along with his new automotive.
“I didn’t get any particular variety of races or time to show myself,” he defined, saying Pink Bull workforce principal Christian Horner has “been very supportive to this point and simply talked about the expectations he has of me – what he needs me to attain.”
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“The strain all the time comes when you hit the observe,” continued Tsunoda. “However for now, I really feel actually relaxed.
“It feels just like after I was at [racing Bulls]. As soon as I entered hospitality I used to be feeling the identical, I used to be solely interested by breakfast. Up to now I’m not essentially feeling strain.
“These issues will come naturally, particularly throughout qualifying [at my] house grand prix. However there’s not a lot level in feeling strain. I’m feeling assured and hope I can do one thing totally different from different drivers.”
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