Yuki Tsunoda has key personnel change with arrival of new race engineer

Yuki Tsunoda will have a key personnel change from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, with internal promotions at VCARB seeing him work with a new race engineer.

Having worked with Mattia Spini since the start of his Formula 1 career, a promotion for Spini will see Ernesto Desiderio step into the breach moving forwards.

Yuki Tsunoda to work with new race engineer from Italian GP onwards

The VCARB driver had been hearing the voice of Spini to guide him through races since his arrival on the Formula 1 grid in 2021, with his now-former engineer having worked with the likes of Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull’s sister team in the past.

In confirming the news, VCARB said in a statement: “Congratulations to both Ernesto Desiderio and Mattia Spini who are stepping into new roles in the team from the Monza GP.

“Ernesto will be moving into the role of Yuki Tsunoda’s new Race Engineer, while Mattia has been promoted to a more senior position within the team.”

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Desiderio spent three years at Haas, working as a performance engineer with the likes of Romain Grosjean and Nikita Mazepin, before heading to Williams to take on the role of race engineer for Nicholas Latifi, with his move to VCARB following.

Desiderio has also published a book: Formula One Race Engineering: Optimizing a Driver’s Performance with a Winning Method, featuring a foreword from former Haas driver Grosjean.

He said of his former performance engineer: “I have worked with many great engineers throughout my career, but the best ones are those who understand the driver and are able to give him the confidence he needs. Ernesto is one of them: he has given me invaluable support and helped me improve my performances on many occasions.”

Tsunoda will begin working with his new race engineer this weekend at VCARB’s home race at Monza, with sister team Red Bull also having a temporary race engineer change in Sergio Perez working with Richard Wood, who has stepped in for Hugh Bird while he is away on paternity leave.

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