The first half of the season has been difficult for the AlphaTauri rookie driver, being only able to score points in 5 of the 14 races we have seen so far.

Yuki is currently sitting in 14th place with 18 points on the drivers championship between Lance Stroll and George Russell.

"To be honest, my first half of the season was quite inconsistent. From my side I was a bit surprised I'll be staying next year," Tsunoda said.

When Franz Tost, AlphaTauri's Team Principal, was asked by Motorsport.com if there was doubt to renew Yuki's contract, he responded:

"For me personally no, because nowadays if you bring a rookie into Formula 1, you must give him time.”

"Formula 1 is really so complex, is so difficult. Yuki so far has done a reasonably good job. He was fast, he finished in Budapest in the sixth position, and his first race he was ninth in Bahrain.”

According to Tost, the crashes are part of the learning process to find the car limits and hopes that period is over in this second part of the season although the following races will be difficult for the rookie drivers.

"Of course, he had some crashes, but I always say the crash period is part of the education process. How will someone find the limit if he is not allowed to crash?"

"We are looking forward for the second half of the season. Although it will not be an easy one because all these young drivers don't know neither America nor Mexico, nor Sao Paolo, nor Turkey, Saudi Arabia no one knows."

Tost was also asked if the new contract will help Tsunoda with his confidence:

"Of course, this helps, because he knows he is with the team."

"But nevertheless, he is improving his performance, he's doing a good job and therefore, parallel to this, he will also improve his self-confidence.”