F1 – Yuki Tsunoda now has his own F1 simulator | F1only.fr

Since the last race of the season in Russia, AlphaTauri rider Yuki Tsunoda has received a personal simulator that he can now use at home in Italy between each race to try and improve.

The Japanese driver – who starts his Formula 1 career this year with AlphaTauri – finished seventeenth in the Russian Grand Prix after dropping many places in the first lap of the race, forcing him to race during much of the Grand Prix in traffic and therefore in dirty air.

After the Russian Grand Prix therefore, Tsunoda did not hesitate to use his new simulator to try to understand his mistakes and prepare for the next event which takes place this weekend in Turkey.

 » Russia was a disappointing race for me. Until qualifying, everything went well and I made good progress as usual. I felt that, compared to the Spa weekend for example, I had taken a step forward in terms of driving with the intermediate tires in qualifying, so it was frustrating to miss the passage to Q3 on Saturday after- noon for only a few tenths. «  Yuki Tsunoda explains to us.

“In the race, I lost too many places on the first lap, when I had no grip at all and then I was stuck in dirty air most of the time. « 

 » Since then I have spent time at the factory, reviewing the last race, preparing for Turkey and training as usual. I now have a home simulator that I can use, so I did a lot of laps! « 

“Of course, it’s not quite the same as being in the full-scale simulator at Red Bull, which isn’t like real life, but it’s the most realistic that I have ever seen. have never used. The main advantage of the simulation is to learn the track and to refine my piloting. « 

 » I can also review something that happened in the previous race or I can practice a particular driving. Having the simulator at home now is helpful and I can also discuss what I’m doing on it with my engineer and simulate a weekend of racing from FP1 to qualifying, based on the plans the engineer made so I could use it, so we can work on it together. « 

This weekend, Tsunoda will discover the Istanbul track for the first time and the Japanese will try to stick to his usual schedule, gradually picking up speed over the weekend.

 » There was no F2 race in Turkey last year, so this will be my first time driving on the Istanbul Park circuit. I watched the F1 race last year and the conditions were very slippery. Besides the rain it was also because of a new tarmac surface so it could be better this weekend. « 

 » I will follow my usual program for a new track, gradually gaining speed. The last five races I was pretty consistent but the performance and pace was not that good so this weekend I think I’ll try to improve it a bit more to be more competitive. Assuming the track is dry, it feels like a physically demanding track with turns like turn 8. So it will be tough, but I can’t wait to be there. «