"Much faster" - Yuki Tsunoda buoyed by the revamped AlphaTauri at the 2023 F1 Azerbaijan GP

Yuki Tsunoda believes AlphaTauri upgrades have made the car quicker than it was before. The Japanese driver managed to qualify seventh for the Azerbaijan GP in Baku.

Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, after the qualifying session on Friday, the 22-year-old said:

“Straightaway in FP1 main straight, I feel like we were really fast. So this car is much faster than it was at the other three rounds. The straightline speed was really fast, definitely. So definitely a step ahead.”

Asked about his session, he said:

“Yeah, that was a really tricky track, especially the tyre was also tricky. As you can see, most of the drivers raced without braking, especially the first sector. The front tyre is not really warm, it is not ready enough. We try as much as we can to warm up, but we struggle a lot so the tyre was really key. Warm up.”

The Japanese driver claimed that managing tyre temperatures was one of the bigger struggles and that will be key in the race.

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Yuki Tsunoda feels the Baku circuit suits AlphaTauri

Yuki Tsunoda

Apart from the upgrades having improved the straightline speed of the AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda believes the Baku track has also suited their car in the last three years.

Despite qualifying seventh for the race, the 22-year-old still felt the session was tough due to the tricky nature of the circuit.

Speaking ahead of the Azerbaijan GP, the Japanese driver said:

“I think AlphaTauri itself is based on last three years. This Azerbaijan is quite a suitable track compared to other tracks. So when you kind of, we can expect kind [of] better performance than last three races but also we brought updates to focus and concentrate on straight line speed. So we expected in slow speed corners, we wouldn’t struggle much but obviously the main straight was going to be tough.

"So we brought (updates) for those places and it works well. So I think overall, we managed to get a car to be really fast. Still it was I think tough, but definitely, it was much better performance than last three races.”

Yuki Tsunoda qualified seventh for the main race but his teammate Nyck de Vries was unable to set a time for the qualifying as he crashed into the barriers in the first session.

In the sprint, tables turned where the Dutchman was able to finish 14th whereas the Japanese driver retired from the sprint. This was after he damaged his car due to contact with the barriers in the opening laps.