AlphaTauri set to keep Gasly and Tsunoda for 2022 F1 season

With Red Bull poised to offer Sergio Perez a contract extension to continue alongside Max Verstappen next year, it is widely expected that sister team AlphaTauri’s line-up will also remain unchanged.

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost made it clear at the Hungarian Grand Prix he wants both drivers to continue and is expecting the respective deals to be finalised during the forthcoming summer break.

“Yeah, I hope so because I don’t see any other driver there and I hope that we go on to next year with Pierre and Yuki,” said Tost when asked whether he thinks AlphaTauri’s line-up will be settled during the summer break.

“Both drivers are confident enough and I don’t see any reason to change anything during the summer break on our driver line-up.

“Pierre is doing a fantastic job and Yuki is a newcomer and he is doing a good job,” he added.

“But he has to get experience and he has to learn a lot. That’s nothing special, that’s logical with young drivers. It’s the risk you take when a rookie comes onboard.”

Tost’s stance echoes Gasly’s comments prior to the weekend, with the Frenchman saying he is expecting to receive an update on his F1 future from Red Bull “at some point in the summer break.”

Despite a crash-strewn start to his F1 career, Tsunoda is set to retain his seat for a second campaign.

The 21-year-old Japanese rookie has impressed Red Bull’s hierarchy with his raw speed and ability to learn fast, having graduated to F1 off the back of just two full years of single-seater racing in Europe.

Tsunoda has scored 10 of AlphaTauri’s 49 points from the opening 10 rounds of the season and recorded a best result of seventh place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Tsunoda-Gasly combination has helped the Faenza squad hold its target of fifth place in the constructors’ championship.

“We have to give the young drivers the time because just to come from another category, to think you can come in and drive without doing any mistakes and you will be immediately successful is dreaming on the wrong side,” Tost added.

“To be successful in Formula 1 you need to work very, very hard and you have to be disciplined. Also this, the young drivers have to learn.

“We are on a good way with Yuki, he is learning fast. Sometimes he’s maybe a little bit too motivated. We must not forget he was here for the first time with a Formula 1 car and if you look at his laptimes at the beginning of FP1 he was very, very fast.

“Now afterwards he was maybe a little bit too fast and I said to him it’s better to be in FP1 a little bit slower and to do many laps because every lap helps you to increase your technical understanding and your experience.”