AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost has big ambitions for Yuki Tsunoda in the upcoming 2023 season

AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost wants Yuki Tsunoda to score a lot more points in 2023. The young driver will perhaps take on the role of the de facto leader of the Red Bull junior team following Pierre Gasly's departure to Alpine.

The Japanese driver will enter his third season with AlphaTauri later this year and failed to impress in 2022. Tsunoda finished 17th in the drivers' standings at the end of the year and finished in the top 10 only four times over the course of the season. Tost hopes that Tsunoda will make it to Q3 at every race weekend in 2023 and score points on the regular.

Speaking at the unveiling of AlphaTauri's 2023 challenger, Tost said about Yuki Tsunoda:

“Last year, Yuki struggled with the car. This year, as I expect we will have quite a competitive car, Yuki must always aim to be in Qualifying 3 and finish the races in the points. He is a very highly-skilled driver and now has a lot of experience with two seasons in Formula 1. For this reason, of course, he has to score many more points than he did last year.”

This year, the Japanese driver will not benefit from Pierre Gasly's mentorship as the Frenchman has joined Alpine for the upcoming season.

---

Yuki Tsunoda once claimed he is better known in Italy as compared to Japan

AlphaTauri F1's Yuki Tsunoda claims that he is better known in Italy than back home in Japan. The young driver highlighted the differences in the sport from times past, claiming the sport has changed in some crucial ways. When asked about the matter, Tsunoda said:

“To be honest, I think I’m better known in Italy than in Japan. Formula 1 is a big thing in Japan, that’s true. But not nearly as big as it used to be when Ayrton Senna drove. There was no Japanese Formula 1 driver for a long time, and even no Japanese manufacturer for a long time.”

He further claimed that he spends a limited amount of time in his home country, making him more popular in Europe:

“I’m not often in Japan, so it’s hard for me to assess how popular Formula 1 is there at the moment. I’m in Japan for three weeks a year and last time I spent two of them in quarantine. I wasn’t there much outside.”

Yuki Tsunoda is currently preparing for his third season with AlphaTauri and this time will star alongside 2022 Monza-Hotshot Nyck de Vries following Gasly's move to Alpine. It will be interesting to see which of the two drivers comes out on top later this year.