Yuki Tsunoda has had a difficult start to his life with Red Bull, which was compounded by a hard Imola GP weekend. The Japanese racer had only scored six points in the four races for his new team. In Imola, the 25-year-old only managed to recover and score a solitary point after his horror crash in qualifying.
Tsunoda has struggled compared to his teammate Max Verstappen, who claimed his second win of the season in Italy. Tsunoda has admitted that he lacks confidence in the car and needs to learn how to extract performance from the RB-21.
Yuki Tsunoda opens up on Red Bull struggles
Yuki Tsunoda recovered from a pit lane start to secure a point in Imola. However, this was due to a reliability issue for Kimi Antonelli, not his overall pace. He couldn’t keep up with the f of Isack Hadjar in front and had to fend off Fernando Alonso in the dying stages. Tsunoda admitted after the race that it’s not easy for him to understand that car.
The Japanese racer said: “It’s not easy to understand my car. I am aware that I need to build my confidence and learn over the race weekends, and to be able to understand and adapt quickly, even with lots of setup changes.
Yuki Tsunoda Praises Max Verstappen’s Superior Sensitivity to RB21’s Needs During Qualifying
“At the moment, we are pushing at around 99%. If it weren’t for the crash, I would think there’s still a lot of room pushing to the limit, but that wasn’t the case at all. I believe the way to extract more potential from the car is through learning, being confident and fully understanding the car.”
The positive for Tsunoda is that it looks as if the Red Bull bosses are willing to give him time. Liam Lawson was thrown out of Red Bull after two poor races at the start of the season. However, Tsunoda is being given time to learn the RB-21 and improve his results. The danger for Tsunoda is Isack Hadjar, who is continuing his good start to the season. Red Bull is ruthless and could decide to change their driver lineup again.
Can the upgrades help Yuki Tsunoda?
Red Bull brought new upgrades to Imola, which helped Max Verstappen win the race. They used a new rear suspension, rear corner and engine cover to help with balance issues and solve their high-degrading tyre issue. This helped Verstappen storm to a dominant win in Italy, and he looked faster than McLaren.
This will give comfort to Tsunoda. The upgrades worked as Verstappen kept his tyres alive with a competitive pace. The McLarens were unable to close the gap. Verstappen was helped by having clean air to drive into, meaning he wasn’t losing downforce or overheating his car.
Tsunoda had to come through the pack on a track notorious for overtaking difficulties. He had to follow cars the whole race, meaning his true pace wasn’t shown. After the safety car, he was on used medium tyres so couldn’t push as hard as the cars in front on fresh rubber. His true pace wasn’t seen in the race. Yuki just needs to learn how to extract performance in qualifying to give him a better chance in the race.
