After a solid weekend in Mexico, Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda heads into the F1 São Paulo GP with cautious confidence, fully aware that he still has work to do in the RB21. At the Mexico City GP, the 25 year-old finished 11th, narrowly missing out on the final points-scoring position.
In recent years, the Red Bull second seat has proved challenging for anyone alongside reigning World Champion Max Verstappen. After replacing Liam Lawson earlier this year, Tsunoda has experienced the highs and lows that comes with being Verstappen’s teammate, navigating a car clearly designed to suit the four-time World Champion’s driving style. Speaking in his Thursday print media session, Tsunoda opened up about his progress with the RB21.
On par with Verstappen’s pace in Mexico?
Reflecting on his performance in Mexico, Tsunoda explained that he is still learning and improving race by race. Although the Japanese driver noted the small gap between himself and Verstappen last race, he praised the four-time World Champion’s approach in extracting more from the car.
Tsunoda said: “I wouldn’t conclude yet from Mexico. It’s always building confidence, and what I have is better than ever. But yeah, it’s something that I’m trying to understand race by race, step by step. The gap was small, very close between me and Max [Verstappen] in Mexico.
“It doesn’t mean that it has to be exactly the same. Like we know, he’s always a super driver, and how he extracts performance from the car is incredible. So I try to follow his trajectory, every race, how he extracts performance, and learn from that. It’s not easy, but I’ll do my best. It’s not the first time I’ve been close.”
For Tsunoda, he noted that there were several positives to takeaway from the weekend. He highlighted that Mexico marked one of the few races where he’d managed to match Verstappen in both short and long runs. Seeing this as a positive sign, Tsunoda aims to maintain that level of performance as we reach the closing stages of the season.
“Well, probably the first time I’ve been close in both races, short run and long run. Some other races, I had a very close short run in other races multiple times, and opposite in long run as well. In Mexico, it was a race where both sessions were together, so it was a good sign. So I try to keep doing that, and let’s see how it goes.”
Taking strides to improve one-lap pace
The F1 São Paulo GP kicks off the penultimate sprint weekend of the season. With just one practice session, Tsunoda will need to quickly find his rhythm. Currently, where the Japanese driver struggles to match Verstappen’s performance is in Qualifying.
Explaining how he’s worked on improving his one-lap pace, the 25 year-old said: “Same as I’m doing in previous races. It’s just all about combining everything. Each phase is in the corner, once you brake and turn in, how the car behaves, and everything. Extracting and maximising every single movement from the car throughout the corner is the thing.
“For me, it’s kind of related to the confidence, and those things will come race by race, and obviously how you approach it. I don’t have anything necessarily into this weekend to change my approach or anything. It’s a sprint qualifying race, so I try to adapt as much as possible, as soon as possible, and see how it goes.”
Getting to grips with the RB21
With four races remaining and his future at Red Bull still uncertain, the Japanese driver says he is gradually getting to grips with the RB21. While he’s starting to feel more comfortable with the car, there are still moments of surprise and uncertainty.
“I would say it’s starting to get where it starts to get less chances that I caught a bit of surprise from this car, these races. I wouldn’t say 100% yet. Off-season, beginning of the season, middle of the season, the new track. It’s not easy to build the confidence from that. I know what kind of confidence I can get myself up to.”
He noted that adapting to the car mid-season is much more challenging than during pre-season, where there’s more freedom and time to explore. However, while he’s not at full confidence, he feels he’s slowly getting closer to feeling comfortable in the RB21.
“Like I said, jumping into this car from beginning of season during Bahrain 3-day testing, where you can do whatever you want heading into the season. And compared to jumping in the middle of the season but you have never driven this car and get used to it, its a different story.”
“It’s not easy to build the confidence from that. I know what kind of confidence I can get myself up to. But yea, not yet maybe 90% or 85%. But, slowly getting there.”
