“I still can’t believe I’m racing with him”: Yuki Tsunoda feels ‘incredible’ to be racing against his childhood F1 hero

Yuki Tsunoda is ecstatic to be racing against his childhood F1 hero Fernando Alonso. Tsunoda was born just 10 months ahead of the Spaniard's debut in the sport at the 2001 Australian GP, making the experience surreal for the young Japanese driver.

The AlphaTauri driver asserts that he has gained a significant amount of knowledge about racing simply by observing the two-time world champion. Tsunoda never imagined that he would have the opportunity to compete against his role model.

Tsunoda has been a fan of the Spanish world champion since he was a kid, having watched the two-time champion race at the Suzuka circuit when the Japanese driver was only 12 years old.

Speaking about how surreal it is to be racing against his idol, Yuki Tsunoda told the Beyond the Grid podcast:

“I still can’t believe I’m racing with him. It’s incredible. I never would have expected it to race him in 13 years. We’ve swapped the helmet, which was something I wanted even before I was an F1 driver. But I was too nervous, so I never asked him.”

The two drivers swapped helmets in a show of support at the 2022 Spanish GP, marking the realization of a dream for the young AlphaTauri driver.

Yuki Tsunoda studied Fernando Alonso's technique to improve his defensive driving

Yuki Tsundo revealed he studied Fernando Alonso to enhance his defensive abilities. Tsunoda's racecraft has garnered praise from F1 enthusiasts and analysts, particularly for his skill in defensive driving.

In a recent episode of the F1 Nation podcast, he divulged that he examined Fernando Alonso's defense of Lewis Hamilton during the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix as a means to enhance his defensive capabilities. Tsundo said:

"I’ve been looking at videos… I was just watching the way Alonso was doing that [defending against Hamilton in Hungary], and I learned a huge amount.”

Although he has driven consistently this year, Yuki Tsunoda was unable to earn any points in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, coming in at P11 in both races.

During the Australian Grand Prix, which was chaotic towards the end with numerous crashes, the Japanese driver was set to finish at P11 once more but ultimately earned a point with a P10 finish.

With AlphaTauri seemingly in the dumps regarding race and qualifying pace, it will be interesting to see how the young Japanese driver gets on over the course of the season.