Coming into the Japanese GP weekend, all the eyes were on Red Bull’s latest recruit, Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese racing ace was being touted as the answer to the Bulls’ second seat problem, but after the race on Sunday, Tsunoda realized that he has a long road ahead to improve.
After a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, the #22 driver lined up 14th on the grid. And despite putting in a solid stint to climb up to 12th at the chequered flag, one statistic from the Grand Prix is going to haunt Tsunoda until the next race weekend.
As it turns out, out of all the drivers on the grid, Tsunoda‘s gap to his teammate, Max Verstappen, was the largest after the race. The Dutchman won the Grand Prix at the Suzuka International Circuit with a whopping 58.4-second gap over his teammate.
Having replaced a severely struggling Liam Lawson this weekend, the Japanese driver had a heap of expectations at his home race. So, it won’t have been easy for him to get on terms with the RB21 at his debut weekend with the Austrian outfit. That said, it isn’t all gloomy for Tsunoda after his first race as a Red Bull Racing driver.
The #22 driver did show some promise over the practice sessions with decent lap times relative to Verstappen. While he made a mistake in qualifying that compromised his race from the get-go, Tsunoda wasn’t all at sea like Lawson.
Still, with Tsunoda also taking time to get to grips with the car, it is now clear that the RB21 is a tricky beast to tame.
As a result, the Milton Keynes-based team will be eager to give all their support to the Japanese driver whilst focusing on fixing the balance issues on the car. Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have made statements aligning with this notion, stating that the team will give Tsunoda the rest of the season to showcase what he is capable of.
They are doing so due to the 24-year-old’s experience of four seasons with their sister team, which can come in handy to resolve the car’s issues, coupled with Verstappen‘s primary feedback.
Amid the RB21’s issues, Tsunoda hopes to bounce back in Bahrain
Verstappen has himself been critical of how the car has been reacting. The Dutchman has also urged the team to get on top of the instability and balance issues as soon as possible.
Naturally, this means that the 27-year-old has alleviated some of the pressure from Tsunoda’s shoulders. With the four-time champion himself highlighting the car as the reason for the team’s performance issues, the Japanese driver has more space and time to assimilate himself into the squad.
Yet, Tsunoda expects to improve anyway, as he acknowledged that he is getting more and more in tune with the RB21. Going into the Bahrain GP next weekend, the #22 driver will be expecting to improve and start bringing in the much-needed points for the Milton Keynes-based squad.
Bahrain is a track where he scored his first points in F1 at his debut race in 2021. And given the amount of testing F1 does at the Sakhir International Circuit, Tsunoda will have a good baseline to start from. This year in pre-season testing, he drove the Racing Bulls car in Bahrain, so that reference could benefit him to extract more performance out of the RB21.
