Yuki Tsunoda’s promotion to Red Bull Racing started mostly solidly in Japan – but there is still plenty of space for improvements, and time is pushing, even if the team bosses say that he was set until the end of the season.
Rarely was it more important in Formula 1 to use the moment. While the first three Grands Prix of the season took place on outlier routes that have relatively little in common with most other courses in the calendar, all three races were obtained from pole position.
A small sample, certain, but among the teams and drivers, a consensus emerges: “Dirty Air” – the problem that the current ground effect rules should actually fix – is back. This makes qualifying the most important phase of the weekend, followed by the first round. And that is exactly why Yuki Tsunoda’s biggest challenge is.
Unlike Lawson: Tsunoda has Q3 potential
There was a lot to analyze after Tsunoda’s first race weekend in the Red Bull Cockpit. Only one tenth of teammates Max Verstappen in the first training session seemed impressive – but maybe that was exactly the point: team boss Christian Horner denied that Yuki drove with a higher engine output, but the data indicated the opposite.
After that, the distance was greater, with mitigating circumstances such as the red flags that prevented him from putting a representative performance round in the second training session. Nevertheless, he seemed less to struggle by car than his predecessor Liam Lawson – but he couldn’t bring together a quick round in the crucial moments.
Tsunoda clearly had the Pace for Q3 – in contrast to Lawson or the late Sergio Perez – but he failed in Q2 in two crucial places where the bitchy behavior of the RB21 surprised him: in the chicane, which cost him on the start -finish line, and in the narrowing radius of curve two. His first attempt on used soft pirellis was not good enough for the cut, which made the second attempt all the more important.
This condemned him to a place outside the top 10 on a race day, when overtaking was only possible if you were almost a second per round faster than the car in front of you.
What tsunoda’s true task is
Tsunoda’s order at Red Bull is not to beat or pull off with him, but rather to take the role of the team player as number two: collect points, make sure that rivals get fewer points and represent a threatening presence to stop other teams from playing tactical games.
If tire performance, dirty air and traffic in Suzuka developed differently, McLaren could have split his strategy more to attack Verstappen’s leadership. In future races, the team could become more risky.
This means that Tsunoda has to get the RB21 under control – a car whose front and rear axles regularly argue about who first reaches the apex. After qualifying in Suzuka, Tsunoda said that a gust of wind could have been responsible for the slide in curve two – an excuse that could not be used forever – but admitted that he did not do the tire until he had to do as well as he should have done.
How well does tsunoda get along with the nervous Red Bull?
Wherever his youngest teammate was superior, his feeling is how to strain the front wheels progressive enough to not provoke the nervous rear of the RB21. It is not a car that rewarded a daredevil driving style, regardless of what Max ‘critics may mean. Since the car will not change at short notice, Tsunoda has to learn to let it work for them.
Interestingly, both Red Bull drivers tested higher output levels during FT3 in Suzuka, but Verstappen turned away from it while Tsunoda stayed with it. The obvious conclusion: Yuki felt more comfortable by car in this set-up, even if it did not bring the performance tips that Max then reached with his impressive pole round.
What Tsunoda now needs is more time in the car-he has found that its eccentric properties show differently than in the Red Bull simulator. But this momentum will be difficult to maintain, because this weekend Bahrain is coming up – a course with completely different characteristics than the first three routes of the season.
Bahrain the true endurance test?
The Bahrain International Circuit comes from an era in which Hermann Tilke, the favorite architect of the Bernie-Ecclestone time, believed that overtaking could be provoked through tricky changes in tendencies and width on slow and medium-fast curves-followed by large traction zones. There are very few high -speed curves there that reward high downforce.
So there is no route on paper on which the RB21 will shine. Even Verstappen looked restless in the test there. All of these slow curves are a recipe for a nasty drive in a car that changes abruptly to overlap.
All of this makes it a bigger challenge for Tsunoda, because his lack of experience in the RB21 will probably punish. What he needs now is consistency – but that’s exactly what he won’t get.