Tsunoda: Ricciardo sets very good guidelines

Yuki Tsunoda spoke highly of the professionalism of Daniel Ricciardo, emphasized that the Australian set very good guidelines for him and showed, among other things, that a different driving style can be used. Japanese racer AlphaTauri believes that all this can be useful to him in the future.

Ricciardo replaced Nick de Vries at the Faenza team mid-season and was Tsunoda’s teammate for seven rounds of the championship, but with a break. During training in Zandvoort, Daniel suffered a serious injury and the recovery from a broken wrist on his left hand took a long time, so during five Grand Prix his car was driven by Red Bull reservist Liam Lawson.

The Australian returned to the wheel for the final five rounds of the season, losing to Tsunoda in both qualifying and racing in three of them.

“He gives good feedback, his past experiences help him with this,” Yuki noted. “The team is happy with the information he provides and I learn a lot from him.” First of all, he has a different approach to building relationships with the team.

In this he is the opposite of me, and I want to improve, at least I will try to be more restrained. Daniel sets very good guidelines and puts the team in a positive mood.”

Tsunoda has an aggressive driving approach, braking quite late in corners, although this sometimes leads to mistakes, such as during his duel with Oscar Piastri in Mexico City. Ricciardo, on the other hand, has a more fluid style, trying to maintain a reasonably high speed through the mid-corner phase and preferring to keep the rear of the car stable when changing direction.

“We don’t specifically agree to sit down and talk, but when there is time, for example during the Pilots Parade, we communicate very normally,” Tsunoda continued. – We have very different driving styles and different demands on the car, but that’s it. Fine. For me it’s good to learn a different style, it gives me freedom of choice and allows me to reach even higher speeds.

I don’t know what next year’s car will look like, everything will depend on its behavior on the track – this may require adjustments to driving style, and I will not stick to my usual approach. If necessary, I will try to adapt, and then we will see how everything turns out.”