Yuki Tsunoda said a late pit stop call for fresh tyres in a bid to get the fastest lap for the 2023 United States GP nearly gave him a “heart attack” because he thought there was something wrong with the power unit in his AlphaTauri car.
Photo Credits: Scuderia AlphaTauri
Tsunoda was running a comfortable 10th place when he was reaching the final lap of the grand prix, when his AlphaTauri team decided to call him in for a late pit stop for fresh soft tyres on the penultimate lap of the race, as he had enough margin over Alex Albon, who was running in 11th, to pit and still get out ahead of the Williams.
But, unaware of the reasoning of the stop when he was called in, the Japanese driver said he nearly had a “heart attack” in the cockpit, as he thought his points finish could be gone due to an issue with his AT04:
“To be honest, I got a heart attack when I had to box,” said Tsunoda. “Because I thought it was something like an issue from the engine.
“After I heard we go for fastest lap, okay, then I was relieved, but still a bit of pressure on, and we were able to still get the fastest lap, so it was good.”
Despite surviving the shock after thinking his race might have been over, Tsunoda explained how a late-race fastest lap attempt still demanded a lot from him and his car, even revealing his Energy Recovery System (ERS) wasn’t quite fully charged, which made it even trickier for him to get the lap together:
“Yeah, probably first experience going for fastest lap in the last lap,” he said. “Super enjoyed it, obviously after a lot of managing tyres, straight into the quali mode, this was kind of thrilling, but at the same time I enjoyed it, the amount of grip I felt with low fuel is amazing.
“Obviously for myself it was 100%, from the engine it was not probably 100%, we weren’t able to fully recharge the battery or whatever. But yeah, for myself at least 100% last push.
“Especially here, it’s a physically demanding track. It’s pretty hard, but just re-focus and actually be able to kind of improve quite a big, big chunk of time. So it was good.”
The 23-year-old finished 10th on the road before Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both disqualified due to excessive plank wear. Speaking before the news arrived, Tsunoda said he was delighted to score points for a third consecutive year at COTA, and said his then one point would make “a big difference” in the tight fight with Haas for P9 in the constructors’ championship – which sees the American squad with 12 points now, two more than AlphaTauri:
“I love this track, three years in a row in the points, it’s pretty amazing,” said the Japanese driver after his then P10 finish in Austin. “I [really] enjoyed the last lap with the fresh tyres, the car felt good.
“One point is a big difference,” said Tsunoda. “So well done to the team. Still four races to go, so we just maximise our package, and see how it goes.”
After claiming his AT04 was lacking some “extra performance” to comfortably score points after the Singapore GP, Tsunoda now believes the work done with the recent upgrades brought by the Faenza squad are helping the team make progress “little-by-little” and getting closer to the target, but admitted he needed some “luck” still to achieve P10 on the road, which would eventually turn to P8:
“Yeah, definitely, I think especially the people who work in the background in Faenza and Bicester and try to improve our package as much as much as possible race-by-race,” he said. “We’re making progress little by little, and definitely I felt we’re getting closer towards P10.
“So if we look at this race still I had a bit of luck towards the end to score points. But anything can happen like this race. So we tried to be around P10 and get the points as much as possible race-by-race.”
