Yuki Tsunoda has praised his ousted AlphaTauri teammate Nyck de Vries for the quality of the Dutchman's technical feedback, the level of detail of which he has never seen from a driver before.
In AlphaTauri's Hungarian Grand Prix preview, Tsunoda spoke of how he had learned from his former teammate during the latter's ten-race tenure with the team, insisting de Vries "had the pace" to race in F1.
Speaking to the media on Thursday at the Hungaroring, Tsunoda highlighted de Vries' exceptional ability to describe in very small detail a car's behaviour and reaction to set-up changes.
"Especially the feedback after the session," he noted. "Like to the team, how the car behaves, it's really specific.
"I've never seen a driver like that, he is saying really specific [things], describing each detail, which are easy to understand. And yeah, it's really specific.
"And I can tell like why he had such successful results in the past. It's those places, which was probably a bit of limitation for me, that I have to go a step forward.
"And probably Nyck was a really good example and good reference on what I have to do, so yeah, especially those places."
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Tsunoda elaborated on the specific aspects on which de Vries focused and concluded by comparing the latter to one of Formula 1's all-time greats.
"How the car behaves through the corner, he starts from like braking, late entry, mid-corner exit," he said.
“Obviously, I'm saying that each part of the corners, how the car behaves, but he's a little bit more like he says the limitation, but also he suggests the kind of options to solve those issues. Also for future development.
"What I got impressed by most was the last day in the Abu Dhabi test. He drove our car and he described how the front wing behaves through the corner, and he was saying almost spot-on, kind of in entry how much the front wing deflected through the corner, and that kind of flexion was making our car like this behaviour.
"He kind of guessed what the front wing does and he was spot-on what the kind of characteristic and what kind of design we're doing for the front wing.
"I just saw Rush – Niki Lauda, he said really good feedback about the car. Probably he's like a Niki Lauda."
Addressing de Vries exit from the tea, Tsunoda admitted to not being surprised when Red Bull communicated its decision to oust the Dutchman and draft in Daniel Ricciardo.
"There were rumours already. So I was like not really surprised. But, yeah, still surprised when I heard. That was quick," he said.
"I messaged him after the news. I didn't know like [if] it's good to say or not, but I told him like what I felt and I also [showed my] appreciation to him. And he gave me a really nice message back.
"So obviously we're friends. And yeah, he's really nice guy and respectful person. I can respect a lot of things from him."
The young Japanese driver agreed with thse that believe that de Vries should have been given more time to prove himself at AlphaTauri.
"I think these 10 races, especially most of, or a couple of tracks that, he didn't know, so I think so," he said.
"I think he was doing a pretty good job until last time. I can tell from his lap time and how he behaved in the team that he was gradually building up his confidence. So yeah, it's a bit surprising."
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