General
Tsunoda team leader? Or De Vries? "Faster man will lead team"
- GPblog.com
Yuki Tsunoda drove alongside Pierre Gasly for the past two seasons, but from 2023 Nyck de Vries will take over from the Frenchman. For Tsunoda, it means he will get a rookie alongside him. Remarkably, Helmut Marko indicated a month or two ago that De Vries will become AlphaTauri's team principal. How does the 22-year-old driver himself view this?
"Well, the faster man will lead the team," Tsunoda replied soberly in conversation with Motorsport-Total.com. The Japanese driver says he has made huge strides on conditionally this season and that should help him even more in 2023. "I still have a lot of work to do. I think there are no limits in terms of physical fitness. So I will just keep going and keep working on my fitness to come back even stronger."
The 2022 world championship number 17 says he does not care whether he is the team captain or not. Above all, he wants to focus on his 'job' because he knows there is still a lot to learn and improve. Tsunoda is confident he can take the lead, especially in the first few months when De Vries will still have to get used to it a bit.
AlphaTauri does not want a repeat 2022
With the Tsunoda-De Vries duo, AlphaTauri will be hoping for a better 2023. The team started the year with high hopes, but ended up finishing ninth and second-to-last in the constructors' championship. Gasly collected a total of 23 points in 22 Grands Prix, while Tsunoda did not go beyond 12 points.