Saturday’s Qualifying session at the F1 Spanish GP was less than impressive for Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver was only able to put in a lap worthy of P20. Teammate Verstappen starts on the second row, less than six tenths faster than Tsunoda.
Red Bull are still searching for answers about performance issues
Tsunoda made many reports to his team across the weekend about an unexplainable issue he was experiencing during practice at the F1 Spanish GP as he struggled to feel any grip from the car. The team has made numerous changes to his set-up, but the issue remains unsolved.
“Yeah, I mean, straight away from FP1 first push, I said on the radio that something was not right. It’s just the level, it’s not really matching to my expectations, how I feel in the car in terms of grip level overall.
“Obviously, we try to solve the issues throughout the week, but especially when you’re limited by overall grip, whenever we change setups, it just makes a bit of a cluster feeling, you know, it’s not able to cure the core limitation, which I had. So, it’s very a shame, yeah.”
Changes to set-up have not aided this issue
After attempting multiple set-up changes, Tsunoda is confident this is not the issue with his Red Bull. He also acknowledges that the balance is well set-up, and his confidence is high. The Red Bull driver believed his qualifying laps in Spain were fine, further provoking his confusion.
His driving was not aggressive to his standards, and simply does not believe he could have damaged the car. Yuki Tsunoda used two sets of softs in Q1 but could only finish 0.6s slower than Max Verstappen.
“I don’t think it’s the set-up, because to be honest, we try almost every set-up. There’s obviously some preference there and there, but I think I’m still convinced that we’re able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance.
“And the car balance itself is not bad, and at least also my confidence is there. The lap in qualifying in both tyres, especially last push, was pretty good, so it doesn’t really stack up with my results and the pace that I’m having.”
“I think so, I mean, I rode a slightly bit more aggressive lap after the last corner, but I don’t think it’s, I didn’t go really crazy at all.” He continues on to say, “I mean, I think I didn’t accelerate a little and I saw multiple cars going there, so it’s not like I damaged the car or whatever. I mean, yeah.”
A small gap between 3rd and 20th, yet the second seat dramas continue
Throughout the Grand Prix’s leading up to Spain, Tsunoda has shown moments of progress within his performance at Red Bull. Across the practice sessions hosted at those Grand Prix’s, Tsunoda has had brief periods where the gap to Verstappen was close.
All of a sudden, Tsunoda feels as though there’s been a massive drop-off at the F1 Spanish GP.
“Yeah, but, you know, I mean, the previous Grand Prix, especially in Monaco, was having good progress throughout and, you know, last two Grand Prix, some session I was, you know, some session I was matching up a bit faster than Max and suddenly it drops like hell.”
He continues on to explain that the unexplained core limitations is still present and frustrating. His car is seemingly eating his tyres, and he does not have an answer for it.
“And whatever I do, every lap, even like a long lap is a good example. Just whatever I do, nothing happens and it feels like this car is eating the tyres like hell, having degradation massively. It really sucks up and, yeah, I think the core limitation is still there and I don’t know what it is and I can’t really have any answer for that.”
Tsunoda has the ability to match his teammate
Tsunoda is confident that he has the pace to match or beat Verstappen.
“To be completely honest, this Grand Prix was for me really special, in my opinion. I think I’ve done differently, at least until previous Grand Prix, and the team were on the same page with me.
“I think the pace was really there, you know, qualifying was a shame with the red flag and everything, but at least I’ve shown pace, and I’ve heard multiple times from the teams that it’s been a while that I’m able to, as a second driver, able to match Max or be faster.
“They were happy, but somehow this Grand Prix just dropped massively for whatever reason, and I’m not able to show my performance, which is a shame. It’s something that, for this Grand Prix, I feel really, really ashamed.”
The positives to take from the weekend
Although the issues faced by Tsunoda dampened his weekend, there are still positives he can pull out of it. The Japanese drivers recognises his ability to consistently pull together clean laps, and limits mistakes.
“Yeah, I mean, in terms of positiveness, I would say in terms of how I built throughout the week and everything, one of the cleanest and also my laps as well, at least in terms of the consistency in terms of one lap, how I put it all together.
“Every lap since FP1, also pretty consistent as well. I think from FP1, there was not anything like massive mistakes in my push lap.“
In the Grand Prix’s leading up to Monaco last weekend, Tsunoda made errors on a flying lap. This created doubts in his mind and struggled to reach any kind of consistent level.
“Until previous Grand Prix, I had multiple mistakes in the push lap, which gives our idea, you know, why I was slow some sessions. But at least this week, my confidence was there, my consistency was there, so that was positive. It’s a shame that we didn’t follow that progression, but I had at least my start here.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Grand Prix
Tsunoda has shown he has the ability to climb from last to the points, and it is his plan do this again. Looking at Sunday’s Grand Prix, Tsunoda hopes to cure his tyre degradation and get a top 10.
He can acknowledge that this will not be a simple task. Tsunoda hopes with a set-up change and motivation, he can get it done.
“I’ll try my best tomorrow, whatever I can do, to be in top 10 I’ll do, but the thing is, I don’t think we’ll be able to cure the poor limitations since FP2, which was really lap by lap, tyres degrading, so in that sense it will be tough realistically.
“But hopefully with a couple of setup changes we’ll make it a little bit better, but other than that, let’s see how it goes.”
Although Tsunoda doesn’t see the entire point in another set-up change, he knows it needs to be done. He hopes this set-up change with find the cause of his issues, and will be enough to bring him back into the fight. This is also a point Red Bull will need to perfect in future rounds.
“As long as we find a clear limitation or cause a clear issue that we see in the car, I think we will take it, but even myself, I don’t think there’s so much point to change the set-up, we just need to change the set-up, because we did almost everything, exactly the same, just forward and slightly around, so yeah, we’ll have to discuss, but I can’t see what kind of setup we’ll make in the future.”
