Yuki Tsunoda said his heavy crash in qualifying for the last race at Imola showed he has much to learn about how to get the best out of Red Bull’s car over a single flying lap.
His high-speed crash at Tamburello occured on his first flying lap in Q1 last weekend. The damage was so extensive Red Bull had to replace his survival cell which meant he had to start the race from the pit lane.Tsunoda, who makes his sixth appearance for the team this weekend, said his approach to qualifying in the RB21 hasn’t changed since he joined them from Racing Bulls (formerly RB). But he admitted he may have to dial it back in future.
“To be honest, the approach I was doing in qualifying, I don’t think it’s the first time I’ve done it,” he told the official F1 channel. “It’s not like I’ve just done it suddenly in that qualifying. I was doing it in the last few years and I didn’t have obviously any crash with [RB] with a single lap.
“So to be honest it just made me recognise how much I’m still not really understanding about the limit about this car.
“I don’t think I’m just going to change the approach, I have to take it a little bit easy when we change something in the set up. It looks like this car reacted [a lot more] than how it used to be at [RB]. So I think that’s it.”
Drivers have to build up their speed more gradually in Monaco, said Tsunoda, because the narrow track punishes mistakes.
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“Monaco is a track where I have to build up the pace anyway,” he said. “So it’s lucky that I can build the pace slowly and hopefully I can put it all together in qualifying.”
He finished eighth in last year’s race for RB and is confident of doing well again. “I love this track,” he said. “I have good memories of the last two years, especially last year I had a good result.
“So I have good confidence in this track. Again it’s a different team and obviously the car behaves slightly different to how I used to drive so probably I have to slightly take it easy more than usual.
“But in Monaco none of the drivers will drive 100% from FP1 anyway. So I’ll just focus on myself and build up from FP1 and put it all together in qualifying.”
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dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
22nd May 2025, 18:56
Stunning, Yuki’s inside, phenomenal, how can he possibly not win with such a brilliant attitude.
Coventry Climax
22nd May 2025, 19:38
“insight”, not “inside”, is a safe assumption.
2 options: Mistake by a dutchman or by autocorrect.
I’ve turned of autocorrect, as I’m perfectly capable of making my own mistakes.
Coventry Climax
22nd May 2025, 19:40
See? ‘off’, instead of ‘of’.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
22nd May 2025, 19:47
Now you see …. you have gone and spoilt that!
I was enjoying thinking about Yukis phenomenal insides :O
Coventry Climax
23rd May 2025, 0:59
I doubt my thoughts on phenomenal insides, or rather, outsides, would make it through the auto-scrutineer.
It’s some twist on a Zappa quote: Our big prize tonight is fifty American dollars to the girl with the most .. etc.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
22nd May 2025, 19:22
Tsunoda said Red Bull isn’t that challenging to drive before his first race at Suzuka:
He even said it’s only a matter of time and experience before he’s able to beat Max. Meanwhile, in reality on planet Earth he’s almost a full second slower in qualifying, losing 88-7 in points scored and he just totalled his car, which will greatly eat up the team’s development budget. Great job Yuki, keep it up!
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd May 2025, 19:55
Those words couldn’t have aged more badly.
Simon
23rd May 2025, 0:14
Nor could some of what you post, hmmm?
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
22nd May 2025, 19:51
The fact that he suffered such a massive crash,
started from the pits,
yet still scored a point …. impresses me.
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd May 2025, 19:56
The neutralizations helped him to some extent.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
22nd May 2025, 20:08
What I’m saying is – he is a fighter.
How many other drivers of the “Cursed RB” have even bothered to try?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd May 2025, 4:52
Sorry, but 1 point is a meagre haul with a red bull that was the best car at imola in terms of race pace.
Even perez was capable of recovering to the points in some races where he qualified terribly.
Mark (@mrcento)
22nd May 2025, 23:46
His crash didn’t look like him finding the limits of the car, he just took far, far too much kerb, hit it so hard in the process it unsettled the car and round she went. Pretty sure if he’d done the same in any other car on the grid, he’d have had a similar outcome.
But it is notable his initial ‘Not difficult to drive’ type comments show the difference between driving at 70% in tests, and 100% in qualifying. A lot of vices only come out when they are at the limit. Can see it in practice as well, he’s put in some decent showings, some not too far off Max at all. Problem is, Yuki (and everyone else that has driven that car) is probably at 90% capacity, Max is at 50% and when it comes to full send time, he handles it, they can’t. The stopwatch doesn’t lie.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd May 2025, 4:54
Yes, very good point about verstappen having margin, so he can turn it up and rarely make mistakes, unlike others, including other top drivers.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
23rd May 2025, 4:55
The last driver who did decently for a season with the red bull apart from verstappen is perez in 2021 and if we’re looking for a good season, we have to go back to 2017 with ricciardo.
Ankita
23rd May 2025, 13:53
I’d say Perez’s first races of 2023. He looked pretty consistent and matching Ver’s speed at some point. From Miami, something happened that changed his performances drastically.