Williams ahead of AlphaTauri in the 2023 standings, Tsunoda believes he has given his maximum
At the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, AlphaTauri was unable to close the gap in points that separated them from Williams. The British team finishes seventh in the constructor standings, despite a great race from Yuki Tsunoda, who is named "Driver of the Day". A great performance for the last race overseen by Franz Tost.
While Yuki Tsunoda emerged from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the Driver of the Day title, and even had the privilege of leading for a few laps, which Franz Tost probably appreciated for his last race with AlphaTauri. The Japanese driver finished in 8th place and scored some points for AlphaTauri. The ideal scenario had seemed to be shaping up with 14th and 16th place for the Williams drivers. Unfortunately, with Daniel Ricciardo finishing just outside the points and a final duel between Tsunoda and Hamilton that was won by the Mercedes driver, the podium was out of reach for the Italian team.
« I believed in the top 6 at some point during the race, but I think we shouldn’t regret staying on track and attempting a single stop », Tsunoda explains at the end of the race. « It’s unfortunate that we didn’t secure seventh place in the championship, but I gave it my all ».
Yuki Tsunoda delivered a very impressive Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi using a one-stop strategy, all after a first stint of 23 laps on medium tires. « It was a good season for me. It started off challenging, but I then made progress, especially compared to the last two years. I also made some mistakes, particularly in Mexico where we lost valuable points, but I also want to congratulate Williams, they deserve to finish in that position. »
« It wasn’t a bad race in terms of performance, at least in open air, because it’s always very difficult to navigate through traffic. I feel like we could have secured a few points in the race if it had been a bit longer, but the qualifications didn’t help. We will have some tests here in a few days and that will allow us to better understand what didn’t work this weekend. »
« I would also like to wish Franz fair winds, as he played an important role in my career. He will be greatly missed by the team, and he didn’t even want to celebrate today, he was only thinking about the race. I hope he enjoys the time spent off the track as much as on it. »
