23-year-old F1 driver now told he’s on course to have a ‘Niki Lauda-style career’

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Niki Lauda had an incredible career in Formula 1 and AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda could be in line to match the legendary Austrian’s successes.

Journalist Declan Quigley was reviewing the end of the Formula 1 season on The F1 Pod.

He was speaking with Sky Sports F1 pundit Bernie Collins and discussing the performance of the young Japanese driver.

Although there was plenty of focus on the front of the grid in Abu Dhabi, one driver from the back markers stood out.

In AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost’s final race in F1, he got to witness one of his drivers leading a Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda put in a stellar performance in qualifying and managed his tyres well to take the lead during the first round of pit stops.

The 23-year-old was doing everything he could to help AlphaTauri leapfrog Williams but fell just short in the end, despite impressing the likes of Martin Brundle.

Declan Quigley has admitted that Tsunoda might have been the most surprising driver on the grid this year and his career could end up mimicking that of the legendary Niki Lauda.

Lauda went on to become a three-time Formula 1 world champion, winning his first title five years after making his debut.

It means either Tsunoda needs to move onto a top team at the end of 2024 to match that achievement, or a new-look AlphaTauri to suddenly become a front-running manufacturer.

Tsunoda’s career starting to match Niki Lauda’s

Speaking about the most impressive performance further down the grid this year, Quigley said: “The other standout performer for me [aside from Alex Albon] and the surprise performer as well was Yuki Tsunoda.

“I think he was 16-6 in qualifying against his various teammates, 4-3 against [Daniel] Ricciardo who was probably his strongest teammate.

“Again, it’s not all about qualifying pace, but he wasn’t crashing this year was he? He wasn’t falling off, he wasn’t bouncing off people.

“I thought a really strong season, scoring a lot of points and I think sometimes Tsunoda doesn’t get the credit that he deserves.

“His career and partly feeding into this a little bit perhaps would be that the only championship that he ever won was the Japanese Formula 4 championship, took him three years to do it.

“He didn’t really have a stellar in the lower formula, he was third in F2 and he’s come into F1 and he’s a steady eddy, a kind of Niki Lauda-type career in that as much as he’s evolving and has had a great year and deserves a bit of a shoutout.”

Lauda, like Tsunoda, started his Formula 1 career with one of the weaker teams on the grid in March.

After a one-off race in his home country in 1971, he raced a full season in 1972 with the team before moving to BRM.

He scored his first points with the British team before earning a move to Ferrari in his fourth season.

His first title followed a year later and he went on to be considered one of the greatest drivers of his generation.

Tsunoda has a lot to live up to if he’s going to reach that level. The Japanese driver hasn’t even achieved his first podium yet.

A Red Bull seat could open up at the end of 2024 though and if he can put himself in the frame to take it, then who knows what might happen.