Helmut Marko explains Yuki Tsunoda’s poor performance in free practice

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that Yuki Tsunoda’s underwhelming performance so far this Bahrain Grand Prix weekend has been down to experimental setup changes over a lack of pace. 

The Japanese driver finished P18 in FP2, 1.519 seconds off the pace of timesheet leader Oscar Piastri. This would raise concerns had it not been for the fact that the team was experimenting with the car.

“Yuki we did try something else, so his time is not representative,” Marko explained to Motorsport.com and other media following the second practice session on Friday. “He will be for sure faster tomorrow.”

Tsunoda joined Red Bull after impressing in the sister team, Racing Bulls. Liam Lawson, underperforming in the top team, was demoted after just two race weekends, allowing the 24-year-old driver, who had been waiting four years for the opportunity, to move up beside Max Verstappen.

Since this promotion, Tsunoda has been slowly adapting to the challenging RB21 after limited time behind the wheel on his first weekend with the team. He hopes he can extract more of the car’s performance this weekend.

“[Compared to] Thursday [at the] same time last week, I’m much calmer now just naturally because of less [PR] activities, and I’m able to have a bit more time to think about the preparation and everything,” Tsunoda said.

“Also, now I know how the car behaves, at least a little bit more than how I started last week. Everything [is] positive, a couple of modifications I’ve done to adjust a little bit more, the seat and everything, so I think we’ll be good.”

Marko also addressed the brake issue both drivers were seemingly experiencing under the lights of the Bahrain International Circuit.

“That’s also something which affected Max more, but that I think we can sort out,” the Austrian said.

These issues were evident as the Dutchman struggled during FP2. 

“The final corner, the brakes again just don’t work,” he complained to his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

This issue is one of many the Milton Keynes team has been struggling with so far this season. While Verstappen took a commanding win in Japan, the outfit is struggling with its machinery’s narrow operating window. 

“It’s a good motivation for the team, but we are still looking into how we can improve our car quickly,” Verstappen said on his Japan success.

“It’s nice to have that little motivation boost, but we are very aware of what our limitations are, and we know we still have to work on that. Hopefully every weekend we can make tiny progressions.”