Does the “curse” of the second red bull cockpit continue? In Bahrain a week ago, Yuki Tsunoda scored the first points in the Red Bull, but the training in Saudi Arabia this Friday ended unanently in the route limit.
Almost ten minutes before the end of the second session, the Japanese ancient in the final curve and destroyed his racing car. “I just gave up too strongly and touched the wall on the inside,” he describes the scene.
During the contact, the left front wheel suspension broke out of his car, “and after that I had no control,” he says. Tsunoda was thrown outwards, where he really fell into the wall again. “I have to apologize to the team, because it looked pretty good. So that’s a shame.”
Red Bull’s motorsport consulent Helmut Marko speaks of an “unfortunate accident”, which would have been avoidable: “I would say that such an accident would be expected in qualifying, not in the Longrun,” said the Austrian. “It was more of a matter of concentration at the end. We have to speak to him.”
The team hopes that not too much was damaged in the accident in the accident, but what broke up will only know when the car has been examined in detail. “But it is certain: it started with the left front wheel, then he also caught the right front wheel,” says team boss Christian Horner.
“So he damaged the front axle and the front wing. We hope that the underbody is okay. But only when the car is back can we look at it correctly,” said the Brit.
Marko: “distance to Max is gratifying”
Until then, the performance of the Japanese was okay. The Japanese ended the day as the sixth of almost four tenths behind teammates Verstappen and, according to his own statement, feels more and more comfortable in the car. “Trust is good,” says Tsunoda himself.
“The speed fit”, Marko is also satisfied with the performance. Tsunoda had a different set-up in Dschidda on Friday to see in which direction the team can go. “Unfortunately, this little incident came, but the distance from Max is gratifying, you have to see it positively,” he says.
Apart from the accident, Red Bull was very satisfied with Friday. Marko had already announced a different approach after the bad weekend in Bahrain, after having always held back on Fridays and had not always had the best preparation.
“We can’t always just advise,” Marko explains this step. “We wanted facts – how far are we really gone?”
Longrun still worries the team
The answer on Friday is: 0.280 seconds behind the best time of Lando Norris, which meant third place for Max Verstappen. “I think that was our best Friday for a long time,” says Marko. “We tried different set-ups, and that also works for the qualifying round. We are much closer to the McLarens on it.”
He currently speaks of “two or three tenths” that are missing on McLaren, which corresponds to the time distance of the table. But you are still worried about the Longruns: “Unfortunately, we were far too slow in the Longruns, the tire heating was far too strong,” says Marko at Sky.
“Now we have to see for tomorrow that we will receive the qualifying speed, but reduce tire use to the racing distance.”
Marko mentions the reason that the car is not yet in the desired balance after making a few updates on the car. “We had a new approach that works in a certain direction,” he says.
You know what the car needs for qualifying – now you just have to see how to reduce the tire wear in the race. “I think that’s possible,” said Marko.
McLaren again?
Max Verstappen says that Red Bull learned a lot from the set-up experiments this Friday. “But it is still not where I would like to have it,” said the Dutch, who does not look at the table.
“I personally do not look at the distances so much – at the end of the day it is about how the car feels for you,” he waves, and gives similar statements to his team bosses: “It has gotten a little better on one round, but in the Longrun it was still quite difficult for us.”
At Red Bull, it is assumed that the weekend will go better than Bahrain because the route will meet the car a little more. Nevertheless, you don’t think you are in the fight for victory. “Of course, a team stands out,” Verstappen looks towards McLaren. “We still have a lot to do and understand.”
That is why Marko is currently the destination in qualifying because McLaren is “so fast” and “from the beginning”. “Nobody is as fast as she is in the first sector,” he is amazed.
And Horner also believes that McLaren is “one step ahead”. “It is very tight between Mercedes and us, but the McLaren look really very, very competitive at the moment.”