This interview is with 23-year-old Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda has been competing in the FIA Formula One (F1) Championship and sets his sights on the ultimate F1 prize: Formula One World Champion. Confirmed as a Scuderia AlphaTauri driver for another season in 2024, Tsunoda talks about his challenges, bouncing back from difficulties, and his ambitions for the future. Honda Stories at this time is a must-read for everyone from motorsport enthusiasts to novices.

Racing karts at the age of four for the first time followed by numerous victories

The Formula 1 Lenovo Japanese Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship was held on the weekend of September 22, 2023, at the Suzuka Circuit. It was one of the biggest races in Japan and Suzuka welcomed 101,000 spectators on the day of the Race, September 24, and more than 200,000 over the three days of the race weekend.

Tsunoda made it to Q3 and qualified ninth at his home race, igniting fan hopes for a points-earning finish. While he ultimately slipped to 12th, the enthusiastic cheers of tens of thousands of fans echoed throughout the Race. Looking back, how does he feel about the race?

Tsunoda

The support of the fans is a big advantage for me. Even though I didn’t cross the finish line with the result I craved this time, I gave it my all and I have no regrets in that. It’s always nice to see new fans coming to watch how I perform, and I want to achieve good results and make motor sport more popular. I’ll give it everything I’ve got.

Tsunoda was only four years old when he raced his first kart. His father, Nobuaki Tsunoda, a former gymkhana racer himself, took his son to the track and let him try kids karting. This is where his racing career began.

On the way home from a family trip, they stopped off at the Nakai Inter Circuit where there was a track for kid karts and pocket bikes. It was the first time to try karts for him.

Tsunoda

I don’t remember much, but I kind of liked cars including my push car at home. I remember I chose a kart between a pocket bike and kid kart and drove on a circle track.

At the Nakai Inter Circuit’s Kids Kart School Kanagawa, young Tsunoda learned the ropes of racing in his childhood. Tsunoda enjoyed racing and competing with his friends of the same generation And he was pleased by achieving good results in races.

Tsunoda

I didn’t race or train seriously in those days. I was a child who would go back to the pit soon when I felt tired. I didn’t really understand much about racing. There was one occasion when I went into the pit during the qualifying session by mistake and almost got disqualified.

Thanks to the generosity of the race owner, I was allowed to start from the pit lane in the Race and was able to recover and win the race. What I remember is that it was fun to drive, and I liked completing and winning.

I don’t want to go to the circuit – teenage years when racing was no longer fun

Born with an athlete’s instinct and fueled by intense competitiveness, Tsunoda won the series championship at the Nakai Inter Circuit in 2006, in his second year of karting. He was unstoppable and went on to win race after race. In 2007, He went to his first F1 race at the age of seven.

The 2007 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix roared to life at the Fuji Speedway, where motorsport legends like the Japanese driver Takuma Sato, Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso battled.

Tsunoda

Earplugs muffled the raw engine roar, but the chest-pounding rumble still sent shivers down my spine. Only 20 drivers get to call it their world. It didn’t seem too real at the time, but as I won more, it blazed into my reality and I felt that I was getting closer to it.

But his father, a former racer himself, was strict on the track. Every detail dissected, every mistake scrutinized, turned the “once-joyful competition with friends” into a suffocating pursuit of perfection.

Tsunoda

In the old days, I didn’t want to go to the circuit, and didn’t feel disappointed or anything even though I didn’t win a race. I was grateful that my father was guiding me, but at the same time I felt suffocated when I had to do everything exactly as I was told. I began to feel that I wanted to do everything myself. Looking back, however, I sometimes feel that my father’s strict discipline laid the foundation for me.

In 2016, Tsunoda was 16 years old when he left his father and joined the Suzuka Circuit Racing School.

Letting my guard down cost me my first setback – I cried “I may not be able to race again”

In 2016, Tsunoda joined the 22nd generation class of the Suzuka Circuit Racing School Formula (SRS-F, now known as the Honda Racing School Suzuka [HRS]). There were not only drivers who had already competed overseas but also drivers who had competed in F4, such as Toshiki Oyu and Ukyo Sasahara.

Having successfully completed the Qualifying Step 1 and 2, eight drivers can enter the advanced formula class. They are eligible for the Scholarship selection trials, and only those who achieve successful results are rewarded with the Scholarship: the right to compete in the official race the following year.

Tsunoda

Being away from my parents for the first time, it was exhilarating to think, repeat trial and error, and race on the track all by myself. And it was also around this time that I started to take racing seriously. The more I pushed myself, the more I enjoyed racing. In the early days I struggled to hang on to the front group, but I clawed my way back after a while and won a few races. Things were going well, so in retrospect, I must have let my guard down.

As Tsunoda worked harder at racing, the results followed. Tsunoda crossed the finish line first in the Super FJ Dream Cup race on the undercard of the 2016 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix. It was on October 8, 2016, just one month before the Scholarship selection final trial.

“Let me race, I can win it.”
Without realizing it, Tsunoda’s confidence turned to complacency. He enthusiastically took part in general driving practice at Suzuka. Yet as the weeks went by, he didn’t visit the circuit as often. “Going to the circuit is tedious – besides, I will be in a different car for the final.” He said he was over-optimistic.

Tsunoda

Now I can grasp that it’s a very amazing thing itself that someone gives me the opportunity to race but at that time I didn’t even appreciate it and couldn’t make good use of the time I was given.

Tsunoda made an unexpected false start in the selection final race, where drivers can score the most points. He had to serve a drive-through penalty, which meant he had to enter and drive through the pit lane while following the pit road speed limit. Tsunoda was well behind all the other cars, let alone the race leader.

Tsunoda raced almost alone on the track. As he scored hardly any points in the final trial, Tsunoda’s overall points dropped significantly. “I expected to make it by finishing first or second in the Scholarship selection final trial” – but Tsunoda’s expectations were dashed as he came in third. Tsunoda missed out and the 2017 Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP) Scholarships went to Toshiki Oyu (first) and Ukyo Sasahara (second).

I may not be able to race again.

Tsunoda cried on the train on the way to his home, it was his first setback, at the age of 16.

Leaving my mark as a driver in history by breaking records and being remembered

Things could have all been quite different if Satoru Nakajima, the former Formula 1 driver and then head of the school, hadn’t been there at the final trial. Nakajima saw Tsunoda race, so far behind the other cars, but still trying to cling to hope, and recommended him to the judges to enter the 2017 FIA Formula 4 series as part of the Suzuka Circuit Racing School.

Tsunoda

They gave me a chance to race in Formula 4. I promised myself that I would make the most of this.

True to his word, Tsunoda became the winner of the Super FJ Japan Championship Tournament, which was held just 10 days after the Scholarship selection final trial. In 2017, He made full use of his opportunity and became the youngest winner in history in the FIA Formula 4 Championship Round 2 at Okayama, and finishing third overall.

He embraced the challenge of international competition and moved up to Formula 4, 3, and 2. In 2021, He made his F1 debut as the youngest Japanese Formula 1 driver in history, finishing fourth in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, for his best result. What motivates and makes him want to realize his dreams?

Tsunoda

I want to be faster and stronger. I want to be the fastest and leading driver across the world. I want to keep pushing boundaries day after day. This is what motivates me. I may set a new record today, but I would be able to break it tomorrow. My potential is limitless.

Tsunoda has been unstoppable in his quest, setting new records including becoming the youngest FIA F4 winner and the youngest Japanese Formula 1 driver. But his journey is far from over.

Tsunoda

My goal is to become the world champion. However, I have not reached the stage where I can aim for that yet. I want to become faster and stronger to get to that stage. I aspire to be a driver who is acknowledged by everyone. I am currently laying the foundations to increase my value as a driver. I want every detail to be in perfect harmony before I slip into the seat of the great championship-winning car. Right now, my focus is on getting good lap times and winning the races that are in front of me so that I can get closer to that stage.

My ultimate dream is to leave my mark as a driver in history.

I want to become a world champion, break the records of consecutive wins held by former world champions, and push my limits endlessly. I want to be remembered as a racer.

Tsunoda’s relentless pursuit of his dreams burns brighter.