Alan Permane<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201c[It was] positive for sure,\u201d the Japanese racer confirmed. \u201cAnd even after the debrief, I said, \u2018Good luck this season, I enjoyed it,\u2019 or something. Alan said, \u2018We might need you again \u2013 we might need you again next week. So be prepared.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell that I felt some more trust from him after that race. If I did really bad, and anything can happen with this world, maybe I wouldn’t get called to drive this week. So yeah, I think this was very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although final confirmation came late, Tsunoda had spent the days after Zandvoort assuming he might be needed. He therefore focused on training, working with the Faenza engineers and running in the simulator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty much really chilled, like a usual race week. I was more prepared, I would say, than the week before in the Netherlands, because it all happened suddenly, and now after Isack was injured, I was more prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that was probably the healthiest one week I spent in 2026 so far! So yeah, I was really prepared. I’m feeling more ready than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest challenge now is energy deployment around Monza, an area where Tsunoda lacks the race experience of the drivers who have competed throughout this season, taking in the long straights at places like Shanghai and Spa-Francorchamps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Netherlands was fortunately one of the easiest tracks I would say to manage the energy, and I can say that I was able to adjust to the car pretty smoothly,” said Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now it’s the most difficult track for that energy deployment, and I already experienced in the simulator how different it is, and really kicks in these challenges of these regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, the management, brake early or whatever, those things I really have to practice. And in the simulator, it felt really weird, because I know I can drive faster \u2013 but you cannot, because otherwise in total lap time, you’ll be slow. So that will be the biggest challenge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being quick over a single lap is one thing, but Tsunoda must also adjust to the tactical, energy-management battles that were less prominent at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it will be more challenging in race condition,\u201d he admitted. \u201cBecause this kind of strategic, I would say, battle with the energy management with other cars, I didn’t do that, and probably other [drivers] know what the car is going to do after they use the battery to overtake or defend. I only know from the simulator, and the Netherlands was probably the least powerful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn short runs I would say I’m not worried as much, because you have free practice anyway, so you know what kind of things, and you can only focus on yourself. But in the race, you have to be proactive, right? So that’s the only thing that I have to be more prepared for sure than the Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsunoda is hoping to take a step forward from Zandvoort, with a place in Q3 and points on Sunday his ideal scenario. However, he knows it will not be easy.<\/p>\n
“I will see for FP1 these energy things, how difficult it is. I really don’t know. But I think the car pace is good, and we\u2019re bringing an upgrade here, so I am excited to see that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Netherlands was more like I just entered the race a bit like a rookie, so I just tried to learn as much as possible. The time was very tight because of the Sprint format.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to practice a lot of things, like energy deployments, and even over one lap to be patient. I would say I feel like I’m a rookie, and I have to try and learn everything, and try to not miss any single thing that the team is instructing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also has a special reason to want a good result this weekend: \u201cI want to do well here \u2013 I\u2019ve never done well here. Out of five years, I have three DNFs, two I didn’t even start. So I don’t know what’s going on with here, but getting this opportunity, hopefully it\u2019s lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Yuki Tsunoda was told he would be driving for Racing Bulls at the Dutch Grand Prix, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-882073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}