"He’s still full beans in the cockpit" - AlphaTauri should be 'nurturing' Yuki Tsunoda, says F1 TV pundit Martin Brundle's son

Alex Brundle says AlphaTauri should be “nurturing” Yuki Tsunoda rather than employing their usual tactic of throwing young drivers at the sharp end of the action. The son of former F1 driver-turned-TV pundit Martin Brundle, Alex is an accomplished racing driver, having won the 2016 European Le Mans Series.

The younger Brundle believes the improvements that Tsunoda has made this season compared to last year put to rest doubters who questioned whether he was deserving of an F1 seat. Speaking on the Crash.net podcast, he said:

“People questioned [whether] he should still be there, and they really believed in him, they kept him through this year, and I really hope he can deliver on that because I’d like to see the programme move in that direction of nurturing rather than just ‘throw him in, no!’, ‘throw him in, no!’ He’s worked on it, hasn’t he? He’s still full beans in the cockpit.”

Yuki Tsunoda’s debut F1 season with AlphaTauri last year was mediocre. The young Japanese driver occasionally displayed flashes of brilliance but often failed to get decent results. His inconsistent performances potentially cost his team a possible P5 in the constructors' championship.

To get Tsunoda to be more consistent with his performances, AlphaTauri put him through a rigorous training program at the end of last season. He was also briefly coached by then-Red Bull test driver Alex Albon.

Subsequently, Tsunoda has improved markedly, emerging as the lead driver for AlphaTauri this season. While the Italian outfit has been on the back foot this season, Tsunoda has continued to impress.

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Yuki Tsunoda “more human” within the cockpit than other drivers: Alex Brundle

Despite his markedly improved performances, Alex Brundle believes Yuki Tsunoda has remained his old emotional self, expressing his excitement and frustrations within the cockpit in equal measure. Speaking on the aforementioned podcast, Brundle said:

“I find myself watching him really wanting to see him succeed because he’s a human in the car, you can tell that as opposed to some other drivers that just come across and it’s no detriment to the character, in fact, it’s probably beneficial in the circumstances that they come across as a machine.”

Tsunoda has built up a reputation for his unfiltered and often comical exchanges with his team on the radio. Some of his exchanges led to the team asking him to keep a hold of his outbursts.