F1 News: Yuki Tsunoda On AlphaTauri Line-Up - "Probably Daniel Ricciardo"
Yuki Tsunoda has spoken out on who he believes AlphaTauri will choose for the 2024 driver line-up, stating that if "they want more results" the team will probably opt for Daniel Ricciardo.
The AlphaTauri team finds itself in a situation where no driver is confirmed for 2024, however, three are in the running. Tsunoda, who is heading into his home race weekend in Japan, is expected to announce a contract extension imminently. If this is true, then the team will have eight-time Grand Prix winner Ricciardo, or Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson who has been putting in impressive performances whilst he stands in for the injured Australian driver.
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Speaking to the media ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Tsunoda was asked for some insight into who his 2024 teammate might be by Sky Sports F1, he responded:
"Both perspectives it's positive. Daniel brings more experience and he showed a lot of feedback.
"He can definitely tell more details about how the car is behaving. I think the engineers like it, especially how he talks and helps the development side. If the team wants to develop the car more to be competitive, maybe Daniel.
"But, at the same time, Liam showed in the first three races immediately he showed a good performance and is probably still progressing."
Ricciardo was brought in to replace Nyck de Vries after just ten races of his rookie season, but then could only compete in two races before he broke his metacarpal during the second free practice session of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend. Tsunoda continued:
"I've just done two races with Daniel and it was probably not the best time for AlphaTauri. When Liam came to F1, the car was pretty good at Monza and Singapore, so he had a good time. At the same time, he performed well.
"AlphaTauri itself, we know it's like a junior team. At the same time, there is a bit more risk and we have to think about the results in general.
"Depends on what they are thinking. If they want more results, probably Daniel. He has more experience and can extract results maybe. But also Liam…I don't know, it's hard to say. It's scary to say!"
