AlphaTauri F1 Team boss expects Tsunoda to struggle first year

AlphaTauri F1 team boss Franz Tost is expecting the first year of Yuki Tsunoda’s Formula 1 career to be very tough.

“The first year for a newcomer in Formula 1 will be very tough,” Tost is quoted as saying by GPFans.com. “For example, you come to Melbourne having jet lag, a new racetrack and also, all day long media and marketing appointments.

“Also the technical side of the race car, this takes a while for a driver to get a handle these processes.  [The lack of testing] means for a young driver he needs a lot of mental strength but also it will be very physically and challenging for the first races.

“It will be hard in the beginning when he doesn’t know the racetracks.  But with the second part of the season when he knows Barcelona, Silverstone, Austria and Hungary where he races with Formula 2, I hope he will challenge Pierre and be close to him.

“My expectation is that he then also makes it to Q3 and he starts collecting points for the team.”