Yuki Tsunoda said he is pleased with the start he has made at Red Bull as he heads into his third event with the team.
Last week in Bahrain he scored his first points since being drafted in as a replacement for the struggling Liam Lawson at round three.“I’m happy with how I progressed in the last two races,” Tsunoda told the official F1 channel, saying it had gone “slightly better than I thought, probably.”
However he admitted he still has a lot to learn about how to get the most out of the RB21.
“[I’m] still in the process that I’m trying to understand about the car, how this car works in different tracks and different kinds of conditions,” he said. “These things will come with experience and time.
“But considering the two races I’m happy with the current shape in terms of confidence level. It’s quite up there. Obviously it’s not 100% perfect but it’s okay.”
Tsunoda was only 18th overall at the end of final practice last week but rebounded to reach Q3. He wants “to be slightly more consistent in free practice,” this weekend in Jeddah.
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“In the last two grands prix, I had a lot of up and down in free practice,” he said. “I had very tough practices in Bahrain.
“In some sessions there’s a big reason for it, but I think if I’m able to nail it down slightly more from the early stages, I’m just going to have more confidence. I’m also able to get extra performance from the car, probably better than how I did in qualifying, so that’s my target.”
He qualified further off the pace of his team mate than any other driver in Bahrain. Tsunoda said Max Verstappen’s years of experience with Red Bull’s cars, plus the extensive set-up changes the team make every weekend as they seek better performance from their car, makes it hard to get on terms with him.
“Probably Max knows much more [than] me about this car, so even though the car is not in the window that this car wants, he’s still able to extract performance slightly better than myself,” said Tsunoda. “That [makes] a lot different, obviously in qualifying, especially when it’s a really tight session.
“It’s not the easiest way to find this window that we want and especially in the last two grand prix, at least since I joined, we keep changing the downforce level and everything. Because of those things it’s not really ideal, and for the team also knowing as well because in the end as a driver we want to have a consistent balance as much as possible throughout the week.
“Obviously as a team we’re trying to solve this issue but it’s not the easiest [way] to solve these things. I’m sure there’s something planned, updates are coming in the coming races but let’s see. Hopefully things will get better [with] better confidence in the car.”
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Marcel
18th April 2025, 9:26
mmmm, I thought he said he was going for the podium in Japan…
Jojo
18th April 2025, 11:04
I think he just said he would love to be on the podium in Japan but I’m sure that was more of a dream scenario rather than one he was expecting.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th April 2025, 11:11
If he performed like he should, a podium might’ve been possible in that particular race, but probably too much to expect at the first race, at least he was close-ish to verstappen the 2nd.
SteveP
18th April 2025, 11:11
Ever heard the phrase “shoot for the moon” ??
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
18th April 2025, 9:50
Both Hamilton and Sainz said it would take a lot of races before they were comfortable with their new cars.
Yuki is already outperforming Perez (can’t really count Lawson IMO) after only 2 races.
It is obviously a difficult car to drive, so full marks to him so far I’d say.
Marcel
18th April 2025, 9:57
Didn’t know Perez was on the grid this year.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th April 2025, 11:13
I thought it was pretty clear he was talking about perez’s performance last year: if you compare how close to verstappen the 2 have been, tsunoda is already doing better; have to see if he continues like last race though.
S
18th April 2025, 10:32
Nobody can ever know that. Perez isn’t there, driving this car, in these conditions.
What we do know is that when Perez was comfortable in his car, he was at the front of the pack and achieving very similar performance and results to Verstappen. And then the team would bring updates to alter the car’s behaviour in Verstappen’s favour every season – as is their customary development strategy of putting all their eggs in one basket.
Edvaldo
18th April 2025, 14:37
I think it worked great for Tsunoda that they picked Lawson first and he did that bad, because they fired Perez for performing at the level Tsunoda performed in Bahrain, but since he’s not there anymore, between this and what Lawson offers, this is great and he got to keep the seat for the remainder of the season.
Because had they picked him up first and he scored just a few points in the first 4 races, pressure would be high to take him out and put Lawson in.