Tost’s frustration with rookie Tsunoda’s apparent lack of commitment to training and preparation in 2021 is featured heavily in an episode of the latest Drive to Survive series.
Midway through the season, Tsunoda moved from Milton Keynes, where he was based for easy access to the Red Bull simulator, to a new home near alfatauriFaenza factory.
In addition to spending more time with the engineers, he stepped up his fitness program once in Italy.
Tsunoda joked in Bahrain last week that in his first season he had spent too much time ordering Uber Eats and not enough time following the example of fitness fanatic Tost, who runs every morning.
However, Tost insisted that Tsunoda was not as bad off in 2021 as the Japanese youngster has implied.
“I think Yuki meant everything a bit ironically!” Tost said. “If a young driver comes to F1, he is totally surprised by the forces he faces in F1. Right-hand braking, fast cornering, slow cornering.” /the left hand forces against the neck and so on.
“But Yuki was fit last year, otherwise he couldn’t have finished here in Bahrain in ninth position. Of course, he realized, like all other young drivers, that you have to do even more physical training.
“And therefore it is important to sit in the car, because the best training is to sit in the car.
“Once you sit in the car, once you’ve done a race, you feel where you have pain, then you can talk to your coach, to your physical therapist, how to change the physical training to strengthen the muscles where you were suffering. And as for Yuki, he came to Faenza and his trainer was with him.
“And I had to train twice a day in the morning and in the afternoon, until I was very well. Physical fitness due to training improves. Therefore, I think Yuki this year is in very good shape. But again, he wasn’t too bad last year, he’s just a newcomer to F1, and you can ask everyone else too, it’s something new.
“It’s F1, these cars, they’re so fast. I don’t know any driver who isn’t suffering after the first few races or after the first few laps in an F1 car, because it’s very, very demanding. And Yuki trained a lot. And he is in good shape. And I’m really looking forward to seeing him this season in the car.”
Franz Tost, AlphaTauri team manager
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
When asked if Tsunoda ever joined Tost for a run, the Austrian joked that his driver wouldn’t wake up in time.
“My morning runs: Yuki doesn’t get up at five o’clock to run with me. He looks at me and maybe thinks I have a bird on my head!
“I don’t run with him. First of all, running is not his discipline, because he has slightly shorter legs. And it doesn’t matter that he goes running with me at five in the morning.
“No, he has his coach. I talked a lot with his coach. Each Formula One driver also has to do a test also at Red Bull in the gym, where they find where the deficiencies are, and these results are important, these are the basics for further development in the physical aspect, because each athlete, every driver is different. They are not all the same.
“And therefore you have to do a special individual training program, and I didn’t train with Yuki. I just told Yuki and the coaches to find the right way to improve performance and physical strength. And this is what they did.”
