Press release
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october 04, 2023 - Scuderia Alphatauri
AlphaTauri: 2023 Qatar Grand Prixview
Yuki Tsunoda
"Naturally, I’m pleased that it was announced in Japan that I'm staying with the team next year. I’m very happy about that, and it’s one less thing to worry about for the rest of this season. The whole Japanese Grand Prix week was an amazing experience. It was definitely special, especially the support during the race and before that, in qualifying, with a great reaction from the fans as I made it through each session from Q1 to Q2 and Q3. Seeing all the flags waving everywhere, I felt the massive support. It gave me extra energy for the whole week rather than making me feel any additional pressure. After the race, I stayed in Japan for a couple of days, mostly doing work-related #events, but I managed to spend time with my family, which was nice, and it was good to catch up.
"Once I was back in Europe, I spent a day in the simulator before heading to Qatar. The last time we were there in 2021, I enjoyed driving the track and making it to P8 in qualifying. It’s very flat, and aero efficiency is very important for the many high-speed corners. It will be a physically demanding race, and tyre degradation will be an important factor. You need to balance your aero between being fast and having enough downforce so that you don’t slide too much in the corners and damage the tyres. There is also a big difference in speed range between qualifying and the race because of the amount you carry into the corners. Overtaking is possible at this track, so it will be important to get a good idea of long run pace, but of course, we only have one Free Practice session with the Sprint format this weekend. I’m not too worried about car performance as it was good for qualifying in Suzuka, and we understand why we could not perform as well as we wanted to in the race in Japan, so we can take that experience to do better in Qatar.
"We showed a bit of a performance improvement from the upgrades we brought, especially in qualifying. I think the upgrades are working, and they gave me more confidence to fight, but I think we may need a couple more races to finally estimate their value because Singapore and Suzuka are completely different tracks. If we perform well in Qatar, that will confirm the effectiveness of the upgrades."
Liam Lawson
"The whole Japan experience was good. The week was very, very busy because of more media and #events than I've ever had to deal with, but it was all pretty good fun, and the weekend itself was also enjoyable.
"For the first time since Zandvoort, I got a good start in the race. I always knew what was missing. It was just about putting the procedure together, which is very different to what I’m used to in Super Formula. It’s good that I’ve done it because it definitely helped, and now I'll continue working on them to keep doing them well.
"Now we move on to Qatar. I’m not sure how we'll get on there or how the upgrades will work. I think it’s hard to say because where we struggled in Japan was mainly in the high speed, in Sector 1. We still have more to learn about our new package, and I’m not so sure that Qatar is the type of circuit that will suit our car. Learning takes time, and we've got more opportunities in Qatar to try and get the most out of it. However, it’s also a Sprint weekend, so at the same time, that makes it quite tricky, especially in my situation. I've never driven here, so going into the sprint weekend will be extra tough.
"I drove the Qatar track in the simulator at the end of last week. It’s very fast, a very high-speed circuit and quite unique, and I’ve not seen many tracks like it, as there’s only one low-speed corner in the whole track. The rest is just fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh gear, so I think it’s going to be exciting to drive. With only one Free Practice session, we drivers will have to know where to improve because it'll get faster at night when it's much cooler, and we need to know exactly how to extract everything out of the car. I’m expecting it to be tougher than the races we’ve just done.
"In Japan, the news came public that I’m back to the role of reserve driver next year. Obviously, my goal is to be in Formula 1 full-time, so as much as it’s disappointing, it’s still my goal, and it’s now about trying to make sure that I can make that happen in the future. Right now, I’ve still got this opportunity to keep trying to show something, and I’ll try to make the most of it. For now, as long as this lasts, I’ll focus on it, and then once I step back from #f1, it'll be full focus on preparing for the final round of the Super Formula championship at Suzuka on the weekend of the Mexican Grand Prix. It'll be very different adjusting back to the car, but it’s certainly been useful having driven so many laps at Suzuka throughout the Grand Prix weekend."
2023 QatarGrandPrixview
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