Tsunoda says experience the only thing holding him back from beating Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda is on a mission to close the Formula 1 experience gap between himself and team-mate Max Verstappen.

The recently-promoted Red Bull driver said the RB21 is particularly tricky to drive without prior experience, which gives Verstappen a major advantage. 

“I’m quite happy with my confidence level considering we’re only two races in, but I’m trying to understand how this car operates … [because] I’m not fully understanding even half of it yet,” Tsunoda told reporters in Jeddah on Thursday. 

The Japanese driver has set realistic short-term goals for himself, but is confident he could challenge the four-time world champion if he had the same level of confidence behind the wheel. 

“I know that I can’t beat him straight away, so I’m just trying to build a good baseline and wait for the moments that I can be in [good] shape,” Tsunoda said.

“It comes down to the experience really, this car behaves quite differently at each track so it’s hard to predict.

“Max understands it quite well and the engineers understand it from their experience at previous grands prix. So, they can explain it to me in words, but I don’t understand exactly what that feels like in the car.

“I just have to take time and build it up. When I unlock that area, I would probably be able to beat him.”

In the meantime, Tsunoda admitted he still has a lot to learn after spending four years at Red Bull’s junior team.

“I’m not fully relaxing driving this car – I’m still rushing and not fully in control yet,” he said.

“I know how Max builds his confidence throughout the week compared to how I build confidence and it’s completely different. He can feel more than I can in the car and he has so much confidence in it.”