Yuki Tsunoda credits psychologist for help during "unstable times"

Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda is set to debut for Red Bull Racing at his home race next week after a disappointing start to the season for Liam Lawson.

Originally, Lawson got the nod over Tsunoda during the offseason, which seemingly closed the door on the Japanese driver ever getting a shot in the senior racing team.

While Tsunoda's racing ability has never been questioned, Red Bull's hesitation to promote him was due to their overpromoting him because of Tsunoda's perceived immaturity and lack of emotional control.

Many radio conversations while in the car were filled with expletive rants from the driver, with a lot of anger and frustration when he disagreed or was upset at the information provided by his race engineer.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and senior advisor Dr. Helmut Marko often criticized Yuki for his outbursts. They maligned his lack of technical feedback and advice to the Racing Bulls team throughout a race weekend.

Now in his fifth season in Formula 1, there has been enough emotional development for Red Bull to give him a seat at a top-of-the-grid car.

During an interview with Formule1, Tsunoda spoke about how a psychologist has helped him keep his emotions in check amid the ups and downs of the F1 season.

"Sometimes, when I feel alone, or emotionally down , I call him. Just to talk, to recover. That's it. He helps me when I need it. So much happens within a racing team, it can be quite unstable sometimes," Tsunoda said.

"But I know what to do. Outside of that, there are sometimes things I struggle with, just like any other person. An argument with friends, love problems... Just the normal things. But to be completely honest: I'm happy with how I am now and how things are going," he added.

Tsunoda has been competitive with all of his teammates that he has faced, many of whom he has outright beaten, like Daniel Ricciardo, Nyck de Vries, and even Lawson himself.

He is now set to go up against the four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen, who has dominated all of his teammates over the past several seasons.

Verstappen's ability to extract maximum performance from any car that he drives allows for an extremely high bar to be set for the other side of the garage, which can lead to additional pressure and lead drivers to push beyond the limit of the car.

The second Red Bull seat has chewed up and spat out high-quality drivers like Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon, all of which have shown the ability to perform at a high level at other teams.

It will be up to Tsunoda to buck the trend and close the gap between himself and Verstappen to establish himself as a top-tier driver on the grid.