Yuki Tsunoda caught the attention of the F1 paddock when he set the timing screens alight at Bahrain, the first race of the season, The young rookie set a time good enough for P2 in the first segment of qualifying, behind only the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. He would eventually miss out on Q3, but had already left his mark. A similarly strong race performance saw Tsunoda score a P9 and 2 points in his debut, a very impressive feat in modern day Formula One.

But from then on, he had several qualifying crashes and poor race results, a strange run of form which didn’t reflect the Yuki of Bahrain. Speaking to GPFans before the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Tsunoda admitted his approach to racing wasn’t ideal at the start of the season, mentioning he would go home and “do gaming all day”:

"Of course, until when I moved to Italy, I was just a lazy bastard. After training [I'd go] straight into my house, turn on the PlayStation 5 and do gaming all day and try to just enjoy myself.

“But actually [that was] always why, [heading] into the race week, I felt like I was rushing a little bit I would say.

“Always into the race week, I start to prepare from then and I think it was too late."

The lack of preparation seemed to cost him dear, as more experienced teammate Pierre Gasly led the AlphaTauri charge against the Alpines by himself for most of the season. Tsunoda highlighted how his move to Italy helped him turn things around in the second half of the year, culminating in an excellent, season-best 4th place finish at Yas Marina:

“Especially as I'm a rookie, I need preparation more than the experienced drivers. Those things, the preparation, I would say [was beneficial].

A flying final lap of his F1 rookie season from @yukitsunoda07 - and it helped him to a P4 finish in Abu Dhabi 🚀👌#AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/ImnihvYjCu

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 14, 2021

"And there are more things I improved after I moved to Italy. Obviously, also after the race, we went to the factory again to review the races and what were the issues. Those things made a difference.”

Even after ending the season on such a high, the Japanese driver finished down in 14th place in the world championship, with 32 points to his name, equating to a mere 22.5% of the points of his team. He’ll certainly be looking for a cleaner beginning in the 2022 season.

Nice way to end up this season pic.twitter.com/V7qJRL1x2F

— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) December 13, 2021