Yuki Tsunoda gives adorable tribute at the departure of Franz Tost as he claims ‘without him, I’m not here [in F1]’

The 23-year-old driver Yuki Tsunoda pays an adorable tribute to the former boss Franz Tost leaving the team after 18 years of service.

Yuki Tsunoda gives adorable tribute at the departure of Franz Tost as he claims ‘without him, I’m not here [in F1]’

Yuki Tsunoda and Franz Tost (via IMAGO)

The Austrian Franz Tost served the Faenza-outfit of AlphaTauri for almost 18 whole years. The boss has been in the team with multiple iconic F1 drivers like Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo etc. Yuki Tsunoda has commented over the boss leaving the team in the next season.

The Japanese Yuki Tsunoda talked about how it would be to work in the team without the Austrian boss around. Tsunoda exclaimed how both of them shared every moment of happiness and sadness with each other. The 23-year-old added how Tost always trusted his talent, his speed and in the first half of the season how he believed in him all the time.

Even in the bad moments, good moments, we share with each other the happiness or sadness. He is always the biggest supporter in the team. He always trusts my talent, my speed, everything. Even in the first half of the season when I was struggling in my first year, still he was believing that I can do it.

Tsunoda said, as reported by autosport.com.
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Adding to the list of compliments for the former boss, Tsunoda commented that without guidance from Tost he wouldn’t be able to develop as much as driver. Yuki insisted that he would’ve had lost his way without the guidance and the treatment from the Austrian was extremely helpful for the young driver.

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Without that kind of good backup, I wouldn't have been able to develop as much as a driver. Probably I would rush much more and just lost the way I should have gone. How he treated in that time was really helpful.

Yuki Tsunoda highlighted his motive of becoming a complete driver down the season

The young man Tsunoda still isn’t fully developed as a driver according to him. Tsunoda talked about the slow performance from him in the former half of the season where he wasn’t able to really show a performance and talked about the multiple reasons of this. However, he still felt that he was improving as a driver and learning everyday.

Yuki Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda (via IMAGO).

The Japanese driver highlighted that from last year he started to get better and his confidence in himself kept getting better. He further talked about his plan of focusing to be a more complete driver and not just fast on the grid. Tsunoda also talked about improving in giving feedbacks for development much like his Australian counterpart Daniel Ricciardo.

The AlphaTauri squad may not have had the most impressive season this time around. Due to the high amount of changes to the team mid-season, the team suffered a slump after the mid-season break and hence finished a disappointing P8 in the constructor’s championship. However, the team aims at scoring a comeback in the next season and be better of than this season.

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