Yuki Tsunoda failed to score points in the Japanese Grand Prix on his Red Bull debut, but Jolyon Palmer feels he has one trait that can be useful at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old impressed Palmer last weekend as Tsunoda moved up from Racing Bulls to replace Liam Lawson at Red Bull on home soil at Suzuka. He found a groove early in practice and could lap close to the times Max Verstappen set, before dropping away come qualifying.
Verstappen stole pole position for the Japanese GP after Red Bull overhauled his set-up. The Dutchman took downforce off his RB21 to improve its straight-line speed, while Tsunoda ran a high-downforce rear wing and could only qualify in P15 before edging into P12 in the race.
Jolyon Palmer urges Yuki Tsunoda to exploit the Red Bull driver’s braking ability at the Bahrain Grand Prix
Yet Palmer saw promise from his performance in Japan, so feels it is now time that Tsunoda displays his potential in a Red Bull at this week’s Bahrain GP. Red Bull need points from both of their drivers with McLaren already 50 points ahead in the F1 constructors’ championship.
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While the Bahrain International Circuit does not offer any high-speed corners for Tsunoda to utilise one of his strengths, Palmer also thinks the track’s heavy-braking nature will allow the Red Bull racer to exploit another one of his strengths as long as they agree on a good set-up.
“The first weekend showed promise but, now, it’s time for Yuki to start to show what he can do,” Palmer told the Formula 1 website. “He’s historically always been strong in fast corners, of which there are plenty in Suzuka and none in Bahrain.
“But he’s also always been good on the brakes as well, and that could help him this weekend if he can find a direction with the car that works and a confidence to attack as if he’s been in it for a while.”
Red Bull must help Yuki Tsunoda improve in qualifying and dirty air to shine in Sakhir
Tsunoda might be able to take Palmer’s advice onboard at the Bahrain Grand Prix as braking is one of the Red Bull RB21’s strengths. So much so, in fact, that Red Bull do not want to risk weakening the RB21’s braking performance in their bid to improve the car’s balance issues.
But while Palmer saw promise from his performance in Japan, where Tsunoda struggled on his debut for Red Bull at Suzuka could also see him struggle in Sakhir. His decision to favour the team’s high-downforce rear wing ahead of qualifying was just one problem he endured.
Carlos Sainz’s three-place grid penalty for the Japanese GP gave Tsunoda a spot before he passed Lawson on the first lap as the Kiwi drifted wide at Spoon. Yet the only other place he gained was through undercutting Pierre Gasly, before getting stuck behind Fernando Alonso.
Alonso held off the Kanagawa native by 1.068 seconds after Tsunoda found dirty air ‘hard’ in the Japanese GP. He firmly paid the price for a poor last Q2 lap by carrying 15km/h (9.3mph) more at Turn 1, after which Helmut Marko criticised Tsunoda’s qualifying at the Japanese GP.
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