Yuki Tsunoda says AlphaTauri are still lacking a few tenths to fight for points on merit in the 2023 Formula 1 season.
The Japanese driver came agonisingly close to getting the team off the mark in Saudi Arabia but was overtaken by the Haas of Kevin Magnussen with a handful of laps remaining.
It meant Tsunoda crossed the line in 11th place for the second consecutive race, leaving AlphaTauri as the only side along with McLaren yet to score a single point.
Although he was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the AT03 car in race trim, Tsunoda admits the Faenza team needs to still find more speed to compete regularly for places inside the top 10.
“Definitely, we didn’t expect that pace,” he commented. “I expected much worse than that, so good job from the engineers, the mechanics. Just need a couple of tenths at least every lap.”
With both AlphaTauri drivers eliminated in Q1 on Saturday, Tsunoda optimised the intervention of the Safety Car midway through the race to make his only pit stop and emerge in the points places.
Despite regressing down the order from eighth, Tsunoda was doing a stellar job in holding off the advances of Magnussen in the battle for 10th.
Tsunoda has described how he had to “push 100% in sector one to maximise the pace from our car to make the gap as much as possible” to compensate for losing “too much pace in the straights and a couple of corners that require downforce.”
However, the Haas eventually bustled its way by into Turn 1 with only four laps remaining to seize the final point.
“I think frustration for all of us,” he reasoned. “At least I gave it every effort and I was able to extract the performance from the car as much as possible and fighting close to the points.
“So at least I gave excitement to the team, so that’s really positive. Hopefully we can develop through the year, and I can score points at some point as soon as possible.”
With Pierre Gasly departing to Alpine over the winter, Tsunoda was presented with the challenge of going up against a new team-mate for the first time in his relatively short F1 career.
Although de Vries, 28, is undergoing his full-time F1 debut season, the Dutchman is vastly experienced in the motorsport world, and it was an impressive stand-in performance for Williams at last season’s Italian GP that opened up an opportunity at AlphaTauri.
The arrival of de Vries into the fray has been a test that Tsunoda has appeared to get on top of immediately, with the youngster out-qualifying and out-racing his new team-mate in both events.
Points may have eluded him thus far, but Tsunoda has been satisfied with the level he has performed at across the opening two rounds of his third season in the sport.
The 22-year-old is determined to continue extracting the maximum from the car in its current form and be ready to pounce if an opportunity presents itself down the line.
“At least I showed my potential,” he said. “My performance is the most important thing. If I keep fighting like this I think there is at some point a big chance, more than this one.
“So if that happens, I’ve just got to maximise that opportunity. Until then, I just wait and extract from the car like this performance as much as possible every race.”
AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost has outlined that the first updates to its struggling car will be coming at the next round in Australia.
After a disappointing start to the campaign, the Red Bull-owned squad is aiming to develop its way into becoming a member of a hugely competitive midfield order.
Tsunoda, however, has adopted a cautious tone regarding the developments changing its relative competitiveness, instead preferring to focus on his own performance.
“We’ll see. I wouldn’t expect too high,” he warned. “But obviously I’ll just do the same job as the last two races and hopefully more. And if our car is good just score points.
“We don’t know the specific updates that we’re going to have, but I kind of know an idea of what we’re going to have. Hopefully we can gain those places to score points,” he concluded.
