Yuki Tsunoda came back to Spa with strong qualifying. But what brought the thrust: the Aero update or the new boss on the Formula 1 box?
Was Laurent Mekies the team boss that Yuki Tsunoda used at Red Bull to work again, or was it the upgrade to spa that gave the Japanese security? Tsunoda had received a new underbody after the sprint, with which it had gone much better.
With seventh place he was able to get his best qualifying result at Red Bull to date – also because he felt much more comfortable in the car than before. “The new underbody definitely brought performance,” he says. How much? However, this is difficult for him to quantify.
“We have changed the set-up between the sprint qualifying and the main race-and at the same time also installed the new underbody. That is why it is difficult to tell everything apart,” said Tsunoda. “But I’ve never come with just one tire set in Q3 – that says a lot.”
The Japanese is also difficult to assess the improvements on the Longrun because the conditions in Spa were so changeable and he was hanging behind another car most of the time.
As for the Longruns, it is difficult to judge because the conditions were changeable and I mostly hit behind another car. “I think I will get more clarity this weekend – provided that it is not raining like in spa,” he says.
But: “Saturday and Sunday it could rain again – let’s see. But the new Aero package definitely defused the problem with the tires – if not completely solved.”
Why Laurent Mekies helps him
What Tsunoda should definitely help is the arrival of team boss Laurent Mekies, whom he still knows from his time in the small racing bulls team. Here, too, he is not able to draw any conclusion after a weekend because it was a stressful weekend for Mekies at the debut, “but I think it will be more relaxed for him in the future”.
“What I immediately noticed: it reminds me of my time at VCarb. After every session, Laurent came to me, asked for feedback – how the car feels, where I stand in comparison to the competition, in which curves I lose time,” he says. “I now have such conversations with him much more often.”
“In the qualification, for example – when I came in Q3, he threw me from the pit wall.
A good feeling would be extremely important for the Red Bull pilot, because Tsunoda has been waiting for a counter in Formula 1 for seven races-actually an intolerable condition for the bulls. You have to keep to him, however, that he never gets the same material as Max Verstappen and also has to wait for the latest specification.
No points, but strong development
However, he himself emphasizes that the development within his car is there, even if “it often doesn’t look like I am performing from the outside,” says Tsunoda. “In the current F1 generation everything is incredibly tight: in the qualification, P1 to P20 is often only five tenths apart. If you lose a tenth, you are two or three places further back.”
“I have been just barely scratched past Q3 since Austria – only a few hundredths were missing,” he says an example. “The new Aero package brought me a lot more, but it was difficult to show that beforehand in results.”
Points would have been in spa, he believes. However, Red Bull brought him to the box when he had just driven past the entrance – a fateful mistake. “If we had made the stop” a lap earlier, we would probably have become seventh or eighth, “he says.
“It is already frustrating not to score points – of course that is not ideal,” he says. “But what helps me is the clarity in the team: my racing engineer and my side of the garage know exactly that we are making progress. The pace is there – you can see it on paper, even if it is not visible in the results.”
Max Verstappen “The best driver in the field”
Only: In the end, Formula 1 is a result sport and the numbers decide. And they don’t speak for Tsunoda at the moment. In addition, with Max Verstappen he has the currently strongest bar that is available in sports. That makes it more difficult.
“Max is definitely the best driver in the field. How constant he always gets everything out of the car – in every session, with every Grand Prix – that is impressive,” he has to recognize. “It looks so easy for him, but that’s not it.”
Tsunoda: “But I don’t want to compare myself directly. He has been with Red Bull for nine years – I just got into the car. Maybe you can compare if I drive the same car.”
“But what helps me: I can learn a lot from him. He does a lot of things that I have never done. He is a very good reference point. If I try something new, I can orientate myself on him. I absolutely recognize what an extraordinary driver he is.”