Yuki Tsunoda believes he will benefit from the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo will make his first start since replacing de Vries this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, marking a remarkable return to the team he last raced for in 2013. Tsunoda has scored both of AlphaTauri’s points so far this year in a difficult car and has impressed with his progress in his third season in Formula 1, but the Japanese driver says he can learn from the experienced Ricciardo.
“I’m looking forward to working with Daniel,” Tsunoda said. “I can’t say I know him very well, but we had a fun day filming together earlier this year in Miami. I think I’ll benefit from having a very good, experienced driver as a teammate. I’m sure I can learn lots of things from him and I also expect he will be able to bring something to the team and move the car development forward.
“I would also like to say that I had an enjoyable time over the past 10 races with Nyck [de Vries]. I learned from him, and we also had a good time away from the track. He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge. He had the pace and, as a friend, I enjoyed my time with him.”
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The struggles that AlphaTauri has faced so far this season adds another aspect to the question of how Ricciardo will fare in his return to Formula 1, but Tsunoda believes the Hungaroring will be a better venue for its car than recent circuits.
“For this weekend, we have more upgrades for the race in Hungary, on top of those we brought to the last race,” he noted. “Budapest has completely different track characteristics compared to the past two races, and its slow-speed corners should suit our car better than the high-speed ones.
“I like the track — it’s technical, challenging and good fun. I have nice memories from my first F1 race there in 2021 as it was very chaotic and I finished sixth, after starting 16th! I’m optimistic — I always treat every race as a new opportunity where anything can happen. As a team, we’re very motivated to go forward and develop the car as much as possible.
“In my mind, I’ve had a complete reset from the last few races, especially Silverstone, and I’m in a positive frame of mind.”