The meteoric rise of F1's first 21st century-born racer

Meet the man who, in a couple of months' time (we hope...), will become the first driver born in the 21st century to race in Formula 1. He's extremely fast, he has excellent racecraft, he's had a meteoric Formula 2 career under the patronage of Red Bull and Honda, and he has great intelligence that has impressed everyone he's worked with.

And Yuki Tsunoda is also an absolutely terrific lad. In these strange times, Autosport's chance to interview him comes via the courtesy of his new F1 team AlphaTauri's Zoom link, beamed from a truck at Yas Marina straight into a Middlesex living room. As Tsunoda approaches the screen, he bows politely, exchanges pleasantries, and gets reminded by AlphaTauri's media lady that he's OK to take off his face mask - the risk of infection over computers separated by 3500 miles is, after all, on the slim side.

At the time of the interview, Tsunoda is about to embark upon the post-season Abu Dhabi test in preparation for his maiden F1 season, yet only a couple of weeks earlier there had been a big question mark over whether he could even secure the top five Formula 2 championship position he would require to gain the necessary superlicence following an explosive rookie campaign with the Carlin team.

A spin in qualifying for the penultimate round in Bahrain, which consigned him to the back of the grid, had preceded a recovery drive to sixth in the feature race, but potential points had gone begging in the sprint race thanks to a first-lap puncture. That led to a nervous few days before the finale, again in Bahrain but this time on the outer-loop circuit.

"To be honest, I was really nervous between the first round of Bahrain and the second," he reflects. "I got a little bit of pressure of course, but I had still pretty good confidence, because in the feature race the pace was already there - and also qualifying, I did a mistake, spun and engine stopped, but until then there was potential to be easy top three.

"I talked a lot with Matt [Ogle, his Carlin engineer], how I could improve that situation, and also with my psychologist to help more with mentality to prepare for second Bahrain, and it was OK. Not too bad."

Acquiring the superlicence was the number-one mission set by Red Bull Junior programme taskmaster Helmut Marko before the F2 season had begun. For a driver being promoted after just a single season in FIA Formula 3, with a solitary (reversed-grid) win under his belt, that was a tough task.

"I got told from Helmut that I need to be on top form in the season to get superlicence points," he reveals. "That was the main target for me. But I didn't expect it was going to be an easy season, because rookie season, new 18-inch wheels... so I expected it was going to be a really tough season. But I finished in the almost perfect way, so I think I definitely improved."

He most certainly did. Tsunoda's performance over the Bahrain finale was the single most impressive weekend display by anyone in F2 over the 2020 season. To recap, he entered the event 48 points adrift of eventual champion Mick Schumacher, with 48 on offer.

"I talked a lot with Matt [Ogle, his Carlin engineer], how I could improve that situation, and also with my psychologist to help more with mentality to prepare for second Bahrain, and it was OK. Not too bad" Yuki Tsunoda

It was the skinniest of mathematical chances of winning the crown, yet he scored 43, was pipped to the title runner-up accolade by Callum Ilott by just one point - and, of course, made sure of the minimum championship position required for his superlicence with an in-turns cerebral and attacking performance in winning the feature race.

But let's backtrack. The AlphaTauri drive comes just two years since Tsunoda left Japan as the country's 2018 Formula 4 champion, following two seasons there in the Honda junior line-up. Before he'd even clinched that title, he'd made his first trip to Europe to test for F3 European Championship team Motopark, whose Red Bull Junior Dan Ticktum was in the midst of a title fight with Schumacher.

"We had two days at the Hungaroring, which is probably one of the more difficult circuits," recalls Motopark supremo Timo Rumpfkeil. "He was testing alongside Dan, and it was really quite an eye-opener, because he'd never been on the Hankook tyres.

"At that time it was already decided that Red Bull and Honda wanted to promote the next Japanese talent together, and Yuki showed he had all the right package. It was clear he would be the right driver to choose. He'd done a few days in an F3 car in Japan to prepare for the test, but knowing the level in Japan, even if he'd done 20 days it was still a stunning test, because there was less than a tenth to Dan by the first lunchtime, on an equal fuel load."

At this point, the FIA was selecting teams for its new-for-2019 F1-supporting F3 championship.

"The initial plan was that he would do FIA F3 with us," continues Rumpfkeil, "but then someone at the FIA decided that Motopark was not a good enough team to join F3..."

Tsunoda was therefore diverted to Jenzer Motorsport for FIA F3 and, like fellow Red Bull Junior Liam Lawson, was given a secondary programme in the old-school F3 machines of Euroformula Open with Motopark. Bearing in mind his reputation now, it's a surprise that he scored no more than a single win in each (at Monza in FIA F3; at Hockenheim in EFO).

"In the beginning it was a little bit of a downside to be swapping cars," explains Rumpfkeil, "but in the end, overall, it made him a stronger driver. A quality driver can adapt to different cars and drive them quickly."

There was also a battle with Lawson to emerge as the strongest Red Bull Junior, and this blew up at Spa, where the duo collided while battling for the lead in EFO.

"Yuki had the right to be where he was [on track]," says Rumpfkeil, "but the logic was that if he had left half a metre more space he would have had him, and he would have won the race. It's also a good quality when you can back off to secure a result or a championship. We brought him to a level where he was able to perform more consistently. We saw exceptional racecraft from him." (This was illustrated in the EFO finale at Monza by his rise to third from 16th, after getting delayed on the opening lap.)

Rather than staying for another year at the third tier, Tsunoda was hoiked up to F2 with Carlin alongside fellow Red Bull Junior Jehan Daruvala. But before then, he contested the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand. Again, he scored just one (reversed-grid) win, and was outshone by his team-mates at M2 Competition, Lawson (again) and Igor Fraga.

"He struggled with the fact that the car was so different to the F3," says M2 chief Jonathan 'Flex' Moury. "It took him a little while to get on top of it, especially in qualifying. But he was one of the best racers I've ever seen: banzai, but under control, never stupid.

"What he produced in F2, considering his experience, was incredible. He's also very down-to-earth. I like the kid - he's a nice guy, very driven, very clever - and if he's in the right environment in F1 he'll thrive."

"Once he got the size of the car sorted out, we didn't have any issues whatsoever. The speed was there, the racecraft was there, it just got better and better" Trevor Carlin

"He's done very little mileage compared to most drivers," points out Tsunoda's F2 team boss Trevor Carlin. "So if you'd asked me a year ago I'd have said he probably needs a couple of years of F2. But as the year went on the speed was very apparent.

"Free practice and qualifying, Yuki was pretty much at the front most sessions. But of course his starts weren't brilliant, and we had a little bit of excitement at Turn 3 at the Red Bull Ring [where the season kicked off with the opening two rounds], and a lock-up from Yuki takes Jehan out.

"So I think, 'Oh blimey, we've got a fast Japanese driver, which of course we love, but unfortunately we've got a bit of a crashy Japanese driver, which we don't love quite so much'. It was almost as if he didn't quite know the length of the car, so he's just clipping front wings on the back of people for the first three rounds. And then once he got the size of the car sorted out, we didn't have any issues whatsoever. The speed was there, the racecraft was there, it just got better and better."

Tsunoda gelled extremely well with race engineer Ogle, himself new to F2 after running talents such as Lando Norris and Antonio Giovinazzi in Euro F3, plus chief engineer Stefan de Groot.

"As time moved on, Stefan said, 'The kid's just got it'," enthuses Carlin. "You explain to him what to do, and because the Pirelli's a very fickle tyre, we'd explain to him how to drive it in the races and he understood it very quickly, and he just got better and better. And after that he pretty much managed the races by himself, and as you saw his racecraft and tyre saving... he was fast and tyre saving... It was incredible."

How to be an ace engineer: Stefan de Groot

One example was the final Bahrain feature race, where Tsunoda lost his pole advantage when he got passed in the early stages by Robert Shwartzman and Nikita Mazepin, but suckered them into taking too much out of their tyres, and consequently had more life left on his second set after pitting later. The passes he made on both Russians were easy, despite Mazepin forcing him off the track.

"We could have gone even longer on the first stint," says Carlin. "We just had to cover them unfortunately. We had loads of rubber left. He could have just kept going, but you can't take the risk because if there's a safety car you're screwed."

Tsunoda himself says the COVID-compacted calendar helped him as a rookie: "For me it was good to be honest. We start from July and we did 12 rounds and almost every weekend is a race, so for me I can stay really sharp.

"Also, before the racing I had a couple of tests with Carlin - there was Carlos [Sainz Jr] and Lando there too, and we all did three days' testing at Silverstone with the [old-spec] Formula 3. That was a really good experience and that made me step forward for preparing for Formula 2.

"I had a really good relationship with Matt from the first round. It was not easy for us, but there were also experienced engineers alongside of us. There was Jehan's engineer Stu [Stuart King], and also Stefan was really good. So we were quite spot-on.

"When we made the plan of the race strategy, Matt was not an experienced engineer so we had to a little bit ask Stu. But end of the season we worked really good, and especially the Bahrain strategies we made very well. Out of the race track, we [Tsunoda and Ogle] were just doing some iRacing together, and doing some battling!"

In a funny way, those Bahrain strategies were made more feasible by his maiden F1 test in the AlphaTauri at Imola. It gives some idea of Tsunoda's personality that, when asked about the experience of his first shot in the F1 machine, instead of bubbling about the power, the brakes etc, he zeroes in on a benefit it gave him for the concluding F2 round.

"What I experienced from the Imola test in Formula 1 was usable for qualifying for the second round of Bahrain," he explains. "We had the soft tyre [mandated], and also it was night time, it was really difficult to warm up the front tyres - I think everybody struggled to warm up the fronts.

"In Imola it was difficult to warm up the front tyres, and I got taught by AlphaTauri how to do that better, and that experience I used for the Formula 2 qualifying. And yeah, it worked really good in qualifying and that helped me to be P1. So it was not just a Formula 1 test, it also helped me to improve for the future, and that was a really good test for me."

"For me [the shorter calendar] was good to be honest. We start from July and we did 12 rounds and almost every weekend is a race, so for me I can stay really sharp"Yuki Tsunoda

"He's just a pleasure to be with," concludes Carlin. "He arrives on time, he says hello to the whole team, fist-bumps them every morning, gets stuck in at his computer with the engineers, goes through stuff, does his little warm-up exercises.

"He'd come out in the evening with us, and just be part of the team, which helps him with his language and understanding of the European culture."

Now Tsunoda needs to get to grips with the F1 culture. His interview with Autosport takes place a few days before his AlphaTauri drive is confirmed publicly, and he smiles that "I'm really looking forward to driving Suzuka in front of the Japanese fans". Then a look of concern crosses his face as the team's media lady reminds him that he's jumping the gun.

It's a comedy moment, but it doesn't matter: the Suzuka fans will, in turn, love seeing this proper little racer in action. And so will the rest of the world.