Following a tough F1 Canadian GP weekend, Yuki Tsunoda offered a candid assessment of his performance and the broader circumstances that shaped his race. The Red Bull driver, who started from 18th on the grid and finished outside the points, acknowledged the modest gains made during the race but remained grounded in his expectations and reflections.
Waiting for a Safety Car
Tsunoda’s weekend was compromised early, with a poor qualifying session. Starting from P18 on hard tyres, the Japanese driver knew the odds were stacked against him. A 10-place penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri under red flags certainly did not help.
“The pace wasn’t great, it was all right,” Tsunoda admitted in the print media post-race. “It was more normal I guess compared to the last races, which was good.” Still, he noted that starting on the hard compound with several other drivers around him on the same strategy left little opportunity for early progress. “We were waiting for a Safety Car, but pretty much that’s it.”
Unfortunately for Tsunoda, the anticipated race-neutralising moment never came at a convenient time. The only Safety Car came late. It was triggered by a collision between the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri, offering little strategic advantage to all of them who had already committed to their strategies.
A clean run amid a messy weekend
Despite the disappointment of qualifying and finishing outside the points, Tsunoda found a small silver lining in the race itself: “It was at least a clean race.”
He contrasted that stability with the earlier messiness of the weekend, notably qualifying, where compromised timing left him vulnerable.
“Qualifying was really messy with my track position nonsense, losing a lot of time in FP3.”
Importantly, Tsunoda highlighted a key area of development for the Red Bull squad: “I understand more about the upgrades, new floor, which is good.”
With recent updates brought to the car, including a revised floor package, the clean run allowed Tsunoda to collect crucial data, even if the final result didn’t reflect any immediate gains.
Trapped in traffic and tyre troubles
When asked whether the lack of pace was car-related or situational, Tsunoda pointed squarely at the latter.
“If you are driving almost at the end of the queue, end of the pack, especially like here, you have graining which is not helping at all,” he explained. Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has always been a track where tyre degradation, particularly graining on the fronts, plays a significant role, exacerbated by dirty air and traffic.
“Even after I went on medium tyre, I was stuck again in traffic, so there was not any more point that I showed; or I had a kind of proper clean air with the fresh tyre, so that was the main point,” he said, summarising a race that offered little opportunity to exploit fresh rubber or clean air.
Bigger picture: Learning over results
While the result may not have added to Tsunoda’s points tally, the Japanese driver sees the experience as part of a longer-term learning curve. With updates on the car and a difficult grid position, the Canadian GP offered a low-risk opportunity to experiment, adapt, and prepare for better weekends ahead.
