F1 rookie Yuki Tsunoda says his recent move from Milton Keynes to AlphaTauri's base in Faenza was a "good decision" as it has brought him closer to his team.
Red Bull decided to relocate Tsunoda to Italy during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, following the young Japanese driver's crash on the opening day of running in the Principality and after assessing his first five races in F1.
"I got told while I was in Monaco, it was Saturday, I think," Tsunoda said ahead of this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"Basically, when I crashed in FP2, that was not a good thing and I think Red Bull was not happy after that.
"And also we were talking at Red Bull it’s good to have a little bit [of a] big change for me because I think the last three races or four races, I haven’t had good races and to change something you need a big difference.
"They decided for me to move to Italy, to have more chats with the engineers and to go to the factory and have more opportunity to talk about the car. For me, that’s a very good decision.
"Actually, I was asking Red Bull from the beginning of the season to possibly move to Italy, but they said at first, no. So I was staying in Milton Keynes.
"But now I can go to Italy and spend more time with the team. So that’s positive for me. And generally, I like more Italy where the food is nice and the weather is much nicer.
"So it means everything is positive. Hopefully this goes well, also for my performance in the race."
Tsunoda lost no time settling into his new regimen which now includes daily engineering meetings and gym sessions, flying directly to Faenza after the Monaco Grand Prix.
"After Monaco, I flew directly to Faenza and most of the plan, the whole day, was scheduled by [AlphaTauri team boss] Franz Tost," said Tsunoda.
"I’ve never had this experience from morning gym, big session, it was hard this one. After that, 12:30 was an engineering meeting and lunch and also having an English lesson because my English is not perfect. So I think also for me it was a good opportunity to learn English.
"And three to 4:30, again engineer meeting, 4:30 to six again another big gym session. Most of the things were scheduled by Franz."
©AlphaTauri
Tsunoda admitted that he took a beating during his first week of training but he welcomed the close contact with his engineers.
"I didn’t enjoy last week, but it is what it is," he said. "I think the engineer meetings, especially, that makes a very good understanding to the car and that was really good preparation for this week. So that was good.
"Mainly the gym sessions were much longer than usual. So hopefully I will be like a bodybuilder in the end of the year, but we’ll see."
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