Yuki Tsunoda has welcomed AlphaTauri hiring a psychologist to support him, but acknowledges that it may take some time before there are results. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently revealed that the team had made the decision due to the youngster's behaviour over team radio, including during the British Grand Prix where the Japanese driver came together with teammate Pierre Gasly. "Thank God Max is calm, our problem child is Tsunoda," Marko was quoted as saying by German publication Motorsport-total . "We have organised a kind of psychologist to work with him, because he continued to complain through the corners, and that affects performance."
Tsunoda credits previous psychologist with helping him
Tsunoda has explained that he felt he benefitted from working with a psychologist previously, and credited this with helping him to prepare for arriving into Formula 1 from F2. "I was already working with [another] psychologist/trainer from Formula 2," Tsunoda told media, including RacingNews365.com , ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. "I’m really happy. I was really happy working with him and also he was part of the reason [I was] able to step up to Formula 1. He [was] able to help me to develop my performance in Formula 2, [and my] consistency." The new psychologist was hired for Tsunoda a few races ago, according to the driver, but he is not sure how much it has helped so far. "They hired a new psychologist/trainer from, I will say, four races before [Austria]," Tsunoda explained. "I don't know [if] currently it's working well or not. If it's working well I think maybe I didn't have the crash [in Canada], but I have to take a bit more time because he has to understand more about myself, and also we have to understand what direction we have to take."
Getting "overheated" has been a problem, says Tsunoda
During his debut F1 season in 2021, Tsunoda became known for his often expletive-filled outbursts on the team radio, and he acknowledges that losing his cool has been a "limitation" for him. "I think definitely one of the limitations is that I start to get quite overheated, especially my brain, in the car," the 22-year-old admitted. "But I was in some situation that makes it slightly better. I know that I have to improve myself, those parts, to have more consistency. "So hopefully the new trainer will work well and we can work well for the future."
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