"We believe in him and his huge potential"- AlphaTauri boss hits back at Red Bull advisor over his Yuki Tsunoda 'problem child' remarks

Red Bull's sister team AlphaTauri's team principal Franz Tost has come out in support of his driver Yuki Tsunoda. The Red Bull academy driver had a decent start to the season this year but a recent run of unnecessary crashes has brought him back into the limelight.

Franz Tost was asked by the media what his view on the young driver being termed a "problem child" by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was. Tost replied:

“We believe in him and his huge potential. When he isn’t under stress, he’s incredibly funny and likeable. Everyone likes Yuki, even if no one can blow their top quite like he does.”

When questioned if he had any reservations about Tsunoda after the comment from Helmut Marko, Tost came out in support of his driver and said:

“I like problem [children] because these are the really good [children] who can make something out of it. I don’t like the holy [children]. Yuki made a mistake [in Silverstone]; he knows it and he will work on this. He is still in his development process. He is fast. He was also fast this weekend here. And he will do it his way. It takes a little bit of time. If he continues like he did during the season, apart from crashing, I think that he has a good chance to stay with us.”

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Yuki Tsunoda gives his view on the psychologist assigned by Red Bull

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently revealed that a psychologist had been appointed for Yuki Tsunoda to help him control his anger in the car. When the Japanese driver was asked about the psychologist, he revealed that he'd already had one during his F2 career and that it would ultimately help him.

Tsunoda said:

“Well, I had already a psychologist trainer from when I [was in] Formula 2. He did a really, really good job, and I’m really happy for him. We switched to a different psychologist trainer the last four races, last five races. I think, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say it’s working well; I think we have to take a bit more time to understand more better about him, his thinking, and also how it works.”

He continued:

“I think I will say the psychologist things and what happened in the UK was a different thing. This [Silverstone crash] was a complete mistake, so I think hopefully it will help me as well and I know the limitation – it’s super-easy to get frustrated, especially in the car – so I’ll try to work on those things.”

It will be interesting to see how Tusnoda's season develops because another bad season could mean curtains for him in F1.