Tsunoda: Move to Italy 'definitely' a good decision

Yuki Tsunoda admits that Red Bull's decision to move him to AlphaTauri's base in Italy earlier this year was a good decision and one that has improved his approach to race weekends.

The 21-year-old Japanese driver was promoted this year to a race seat in F1 with Red Bull's junior outfit and immediately delivered a top-ten finish at the first round in Bahrain.

But a succession of messy and pointless weekends followed thereafter for Tsunoda, marked by a crash in qualifying at Imola and a spin in the race while he was running in the points.

Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko and AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost then devised a plan to put the young talent back on his rails.

To help improve his form, Tsunoda departed Milton Keynes in June and relocated to Faenza to be nearer his team. Two months on, the AlphaTauri charger is convinced it was the right move.

"I think moving to Faenza or near the factory was definitely a good decision," Tsunoda told Motorsport.com. "And, that's why I found a couple of good approaches before Azerbaijan.

"Recently I think whole race week, how I build up the pace and progress through the sessions went better compared to first three races or four races, except of France.

"I think definitely it was a good decision. And I spend a lot of time with engineers, more than I have more than usual. So it's a really good thing."

While the change has undoubtedly improved his racing life, Tsunoda predictably singled out two other reasons for why he is happy in Faenza: the food and the weather!

"I like it, I prefer more Italy, to be honest," he added. "I like the food. Because of I think Japanese food is a little bit similar to Italy, and a lot of Italian restaurants in Japan.

"So it's a quite familiar taste, and it's more near to Japan [in terms of feeling]. And also, I like the weather."

Before relocating to Italy, Tsunoda spent most of his free time between races training and playing video games. Now, he is a frequent visitor to his team's base in Faenza where he meets and talks with his engineers, a connection that has improved his mindset and overall discipline ahead of a race weekend.

"I spend more time with engineers and working together, analysing the race, the previous race or prepare for the next race, so that was good," he explained.

"And definitely I felt more relaxed before the Friday, because it's all prepared. And we chat already before I come to the track.

• Read also: Frustrated Tost gives AlphaTauri half marks for 2021 so far

"Before I moved to Italy, I was playing video games and of course I was doing training, but most of time I was spending in front of the screen.

"I was not making the time to think about the racing or, you know, think about the next race.

"Recently, yeah, I try to more think about the racing and that's why we found another couple of different things, and a couple of issues from the previous races, and we just make it better for next race.

"So I feel good step from every race. So yeah, definitely I needed more strong discipline."

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