Tsunoda explains “emotional” expletive outburst in Bahrain F1 practice

Yuki Tsunoda says he was a “bit too emotional” when making his official Formula 1 debut in Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri AT02.
Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri AT02.
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Yuki Tsunoda says he was a “bit too emotional” when making his official Formula 1 debut in Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Japanese rookie's emotions got the better of him as he vented his frustration over team radio during FP1 when encountering some traffic: “Come on I got f---ing traffic,” he exclaimed.

Reflecting on the incident after second practice, Tsunoda admits he’s keen to cut down on the swearing.

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“I always try to be calmer in every session, so this is like my weakest point,” Tsunoda said. “Also on the mentality side, I was swearing a lot and losing focus, so I’m trying to train myself not to swear a lot but I was a bit too emotional in FP1. 

“In FP2 there was no swearing, so a good step for me from FP1! That’s good.”

Tsunoda ended FP2 in eighth place, 0.2s clear of AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly.

The 20-year-old is targeting a Q3 appearance on his F1 debut.

“Of course go into Q3! Get a top eight or top seven, that would be great,” Tsunoda added. “The main focus for me is to do the best performance I can and beat my teammate.”

While teammate Gasly didn’t have the headline times to his name on Friday, the Frenchman is full of confidence going into qualifying.

“I think it was a very good start of the weekend,” Gasly said, “The car felt very good this morning, this afternoon it was pretty good as well. I mean, tonight I didn’t put it together in my fastest lap but, overall, I think there were a lot of positives, so I’m pretty excited for qualifying tomorrow.

“I hope we can get into Q3 - that’s our target. After that, we’ll fight to get some good points on Sunday.”

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