Yuki Tsunoda has revealed the one word that best describes his former Racing Bulls Formula 1 team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Japanese racing driver has been plying his trade at the pinnacle of single-seater, open-wheel motorsport since the 2021 season.
In the half-a-decade worth of driving he’s done in the sport, he’s been paired up with some solid driver.
From Max Verstappen to Ricciardo and F1’s latest first-ever podium-sitter Isack Hadjar, the Honda-backed driver was asked to describe all of them with one word.
Speaking about the eight-time Grand Prix winner, on Red Bull’s in-house podcast ‘Talking Bulls’, Tsunoda called the Australian a “mentor”.
Starting off with “teacher”, Tsunoda was pretty quick to correct himself. “No, teacher is wrong,” he said. The 25-year-old then finally settled with, “Yes, mentor,” when prompted.
Tsunoda was also pretty forthcoming with his other answers. For four-time World Champion Verstappen, the Japanese driver chose to associate with him the drink that the Dutchman introduced him to on his private jet.
“Gin tonic,” he revealed.
Verstappen isn’t the only Dutchman that Tsunoda has driven alongside in equal machinery. While the Japanese driver has been struggling to match the 27-year-old’s pace in the RB21, his counterpart Nyck de Vries was much easier competition for him.
“We were racing from quite a long time together,” he explained about his equation with de Vries.
“I don’t know, we can’t say old friends,” he concluded before finally settling on “old friends.”
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