Yuki Tsunoda reserved a karaoke room and invited Gasly and other members of the team this Tuesday in Tokyo , and some videos of the meeting went viral on social networks.
That meeting also served as something of an informal and early farewell party for AlphaTauri, as Gasly’s move to Alpine is expected to be confirmed soon for 2023.
“It was definitely the highlight of my week so far,” said the Frenchman when asked by Motorsport.com about the karaoke. “All of my karaoke experiences have been in Japan. Based on that, I’ll say I’m a pretty bad singer, a pretty lazy singer.”
“But nah, we just went there to have fun. And I loved the trip to Japan and being able to go to karaoke.”
“So Yuki is going to take me to karaoke with some of the team members! And I sang a very romantic song together with Yuki, which he got really excited about and gave it his all.”
“He put in so much energy that he had to leave the room because his head started to hurt, he said.”
Pierre Gasly stressed that moments off the track with the people he works with are an important part of a driver’s job.
“Those are the kinds of moments where you enjoy being part of the team, where you feel like a family, because we travel the world together. Most of the time, obviously, it’s for work.”
“But then on a rest day at the end we’re all human, and we need to share those kinds of experiences.”
“And those are the moments that I will remember more than, say, a Thursday on the track. It’s always unique moments that you share. And I must say that it was a very nice moment with the boys.”
As for Tsunoda’s level as a singer, he said, “Especially in Japanese, I have to say I had no idea if he was insulting us or singing properly, but it sounded pretty good.”
Gasly said he was impressed by Tsunoda’s enormous fame in Japan, as his image appears everywhere in Suzuka.
“Obviously it’s still quite new, but racing at home is a very, very unique feeling, and here we switch places and I warned you that you can quickly feel overwhelmed with all the support you get, all the energy. It’s quite exhausting for energy”.
“At the same time, it motivates you, but you have to give the fans more time and attention and you have to find the right balance to keep all your attention on the race. I mean, all the people that will come here will want him to perform on Sunday.” .
“But I think it’s really cool. You know, he became a kind of example for all those young Japanese guys, giving them hope that, in three or four years, they can make it to F1. And yeah, I think that’s really cool. So I’m happy for him.”
At this point in the season, Pierre Gasly is 13th in the 2022 Drivers’ World Championship, a long way from the top 10, and Tsunoda is 17th, although he has two drivers just two points above him.
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