Heikki Kovalainen has noticed key Yuki Tsunoda change that vindicates Red Bull swap, ‘taken a step forward…’

Yuki Tsunoda completed his first race for Red Bull after a lot of anticipation surrounding the Japanese driver heading into his home event.

Red Bull decided to make a swap between Tsunoda and Liam Lawson in the aftermath of the Chinese Grand Prix, when it was clear the latter was struggling to keep up with Verstappen.

Christian Horner admitted they put Lawson in too early and too quickly at the top team, having only contested 11 Grands Prix. Lawson struggled to get on top of the RB21 and was regularly nearly a second off Verstappen, and as Red Bull has ambitions of winning the Constructors’ Championship, they acted fast.

Tsunoda was already an improvement having got closer to Verstappen’s times, but Heikki Kovalainen thinks the Japanese driver has made improvements in another area compared to previous years when speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.

Heikki Kovalainen notices Yuki Tsunoda has changed body language

Red Bull was reluctant to promote Tsunoda due to his tendency to overreact over team radio, with Helmut Marko citing his lack of consistency as the main reason why they chose Lawson.

Kovalainen thinks Tsunoda has worked hard to improve this aspect of his driving as well as his body language in the F1 paddock.

“I’ve seen Yuki this year, his body language looks different to last year. I’ve always had some doubts as well about him,” said Kovalainen.

“His speed has never been an issue, but I’ve always been a little bit mindful of his body language. And I’ve always thought he just looks like he’s not totally calm and under pressure sometimes. He snaps on the radio and stuff.

“But this year, since I’ve seen him from Melbourne, he’s looked really calm, really collected, really like he’s taken a step forward. And I believe that this has probably something to do also with the decision that Red Bull made. I think they’ve seen the same change.

“And I think it’s the right change that they made. And this weekend, Yuki showed his pace was really, really good up to that last run in Q2. And I think he will fare better in this team alongside Max Verstappen compared to Liam Lawson.”

Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen’s fastest laps compared

Red Bull requires Tsunoda to be within three-tenths of Verstappen, and while his qualifying laps were off compared to the Dutchman, he showed signs of promise in practice.

Tsunoda and Verstappen went different directions on car setup which impacted his weekend, as the latter had a higher top speed.

The Japanese driver wanted to focus on having a balance he was comfortable with, rather than taking any risks.

It proved to be the turning point for Verstappen, as it enabled him to get on par with the McLaren’s and eventually win the race while Tsunoda finished P12 having only progressed from P15 on the grid.