Tsunoda told to rein in “emotional” radio chatter · RaceFans

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost says Yuki Tsunoda needs to work on how he conducts himself on the radio to improve his concentration in the car.

Tsunoda has become known for his voluble radio messages since entering Formula 1 in 2021. While the team has addressed the matter with him previously, Tost believes there is still room for improvement.

“Yuki came into Formula 1, he was very young, and if something didn’t work as he expected then he showed his emotions,” said Tost. “But it’s not only Yuki, it’s also the other drivers.

“I said to him it’s not so good. Not because of coming out with emotions, but it takes away concentration of energy from you during driving. He should be more concentrated on driving the car instead of shouting around in the radio. Because it does not help anybody.

“You can say afterwards if something went wrong, but once in the car it happens [then] it’s happened. It’s gone, it’s past tense. Therefore, be concentrated on what’s going on. That’s much more important.

“I hope that he will realise this, because once more it takes away concentration. It takes away from going forward.”

Now in his third year as an F1 driver, Tsunoda is giving better feedback than when he arrived, says Tost.

“His feedback has improved a lot, especially always on the technical side,” he explained, noting that even when Tsunoda was doing constant-speed aerodynamic runs with large rakes fitted to the car during testing “he gave some useful information to the engineers.”

“He learned a lot last year. He will also learn this year because in Formula 1 you always learn something. There’s never standing still.”

Tsunoda said he has taken Tost’s comments on board. “I think I can control it,” he said. “The thing is, if you hear my radio, generally I feel like I’m a shouty guy. But the thing is, I can’t hear my voice because of the wind. So I don’t know what they can hear or can’t hear, that’s why I’m quite staying loud.

“But sometimes, exactly it’s like I really get frustrated [like in] qualifying when I get traffic. But I think I can manage, I hope. I actually didn’t really train [for] those things specifically, but already I feel I’m getting better and better in the second half of season from last year. So I just kind of continue that.”