Red Bull decided to move Tsunoda to Italy after Monaco F1 crash

Yuki Tsunoda’s crash during practice at the Monaco Grand Prix prompted Red Bull’s decision to move the Formula 1 rookie closer to his AlphaTauri team.

Lewis Larkam

03 Jun 2021

Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri.
© xpbimages.com

Tsunoda has been living in the UK close to Red Bull’s Milton Keynes headquarters but the team is planning to relocate the 21-year-old Japanese racer to Faenza, where AlphaTauri is based.

It comes following a difficult spell for Tsunoda, with Red Bull hoping the move will help rebuild his confidence.

Tsunoda was informed of the decision on Saturday in Monaco, two days after he lost valuable track time in FP2 after touching the barriers early in the session.

“When I crashed in FP2 it was not a good thing,” Tsunoda said.

“Red Bull was not happy with that. We were talking to Red Bull and AlphaTauri, that it’s good to have a big change for me, because I think in the last three or four races, I haven’t had good races and to change something can make a big difference.

“They decided for me to move to Italy, to have more chats with the engineers and to also go to the factory and have an opportunity to talk about the car.

“That’s a really good decision for me. Actually, I was asking Red Bull from the beginning of the season if it was possible to move to Italy, but they said at first ‘no’ so I was staying in Milton Keynes.

“But actually I can now I can go to Italy and spend a bit more time with the team. So that’s positive for me.”

He will be supervised closely by AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost, who Tsunoda revealed has been “mostly in charge” of devising a new and intense training schedule for him, as well as English classes.

“From 9am, a gym session until 11,” he explained. “I never had this experience of a big morning gym session.

“And 11 to 1230 was engineering meetings. Then lunch, and also English lessons because my English is not perfect. So I think it was good, an opportunity to learn English.

“3 to 4.30 was again engineering meetings and 3.30 to 6, a big gym session again.

“I didn’t enjoy last week! But it is what it is. The engineering meeting especially makes for a really good understanding of the car. And that was really good preparation for this week.

“It’s more time in the gym than I am used to, so hopefully by the end of the year I won’t be a body-builder!”