Finally a good weekend for Yuki Tsunoda, who closed the F1 Azerbaijan GP in P6, his best result since joining Red Bull.
The season hadn’t started out strong for him, as he struggled to adapt to a RB21 that gave quite a bit of troubles to Verstappen as well.
Feeling the support of the team
In Baku he saw an improvement in performance from the start, qualifying in 6th position on Saturday. The race confirmed the good feelings and he came close to finishing ahead of Lawson, up in P5.
“I think also in the second stint, unfortunately, probably if I had been able to rejoin two minutes faster, I would’ve been able to keep them behind,” he told media after the race.
“I’m still overall happy with it. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy. I think something I was able to improve into this race week, especially long run, was massive.”
An improvement that roots in the support of the team, who was keen to make some adjustements that made the car more drivable for Tsunoda.
Something that sounds new for Red Bull, given how quick it usually is to change drivers once things don’t go smoothly. Since Mekies joined the team it appears that upgrades are more centered around drivers’ feedback.
“Also something internally that was supported by the team to make also changes to the car, which affected a lot in this long run today.”
Keeping McLaren behind
“It was not easy. It was a very long day with the heat,” he commented.
“The main problem I had was the used tyre from qualifying and overheating quite quickly. So I wasn’t able to overtake, which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time, it was tricky.”
The final laps weren’t easy for Tsunoda, being in DRS reach of Lando Norris, he couldn’t risk it all to catch P5. Attempting to overtake Lawson could have easily meant paving the way for the Brit to come past him.
A risk he definately wasn’t willing to take.
“I can’t obviously do some aggressive manoeuvre and lose position to Lando, to both cars. It would hurt a lot for the result as a team, being McLaren ahead,” he explained.
“The most important thing is to be ahead of McLaren and two cars in front, which is, I think, the most important thing for every family.”
Not an easy decision, but the safest in order to secure the best result for the team.
“Obviously, I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to overtake and do some hero stuff in overtaking, but yeah, not now.”
Upgrades and hard work
Red Bull arrived in Monza with a brand new floor, an update that seems to have improved RB21 quite a bit.
“Definitely, I unlocked something there,” he confirmed. “Obviously quality is not the level that Max is doing now, but step by step. I think it was not as fast in the previous race week, so definitely positive.”
What seems to have made the difference for Tsunoda, however, was the effort he has been putting in.
Work on the simulator allowed him to give more accurate feedbacks and ultimately find a fitting set-up.
“I think also it shows some improvement for myself. I put some effort over the weeks to put some extra work, to do some extra simulator work.”
“That pays off a little bit, so I just keep doing what I’m doing.”
