Jacques Villeneuve explains why Yuki Tsunoda was ‘never’ going to be fast on his Red Bull debut, ‘not how you race…’

Yuki Tsunoda will hope that he can finally end Red Bull’s wait for both drivers to score a point for the first time since last season’s Las Vegas Grand Prix in Bahrain on Sunday.

Liam Lawson failed to trouble the scorers during the first two weekends of the season before Red Bull decided to drop him for Yuki Tsunoda.

However, at the end of last year, Sergio Perez’s Red Bull career ended with back-to-back retirements in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which turned out to be a fitting way for his four-year stint with the team to finish.

Tsunoda started the Japanese Grand Prix weekend in a very positive fashion and was much closer to Max Verstappen than Lawson had ever been, even in practice.

Unfortunately, the 24-year-old’s hopes of a top 10 finish in the race were scuppered by a Q2 exit in qualifying.

Tsunoda complained about his ability to overtake during the race, but he might have made an error before the lights went out that scuppered his chances.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda’s life outside F1 from height to parents

Jacques Villeneuve thought Yuki Tsunoda could ‘never’ be fast with Japanese Grand Prix set-up

F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve was discussing with Naomi Schiff the changes Tsunoda made to his car in the build-up to the race on Sky Sports F1 (6/4 5:13 am).

Tsunoda was left behind by Verstappen during qualifying and talking about his set-up, Schiff said: “I don’t know if I would go as far as to say that he got progressively worse.

“I think qualifying was the one place where he didn’t necessarily deliver, but let’s not forget, we had a curtailed session in FP2, he didn’t put in a lap.

“FP3, he was right there again, so he actually did hit the ground running, but with having strapped on as much downforce as he has, he’s compromised the setup, and I don’t know if it would have paid off.

“But, at the same time, you can’t guarantee that had he run the lower downforce profile, that he would have been as comfortable. Maybe he was spooked by what he’d seen before and played it safe.”

Villeneuve replied: “You said something right, he played it safe. And playing it safe is never fast.

“You can be there in the middle, but that’s not how you race at the front like Max does.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

Jacques Villeneuve spotted further Yuki Tsunoda problem during the Japanese Grand Prix

Tsunoda struggled to make progress during the opening stint of the race, but he wasn’t the only driver who had that problem.

Jack Doohan’s four positions gained were the most by any driver during the race, and that only earned him a P15 by the time he reached the chequered flag.

Simply Suzuka 💪🌸

Max takes home an incredible win, and Yuki puts in a solid performance to finish in P12 🤝

Result 🏁: Max 🫶, NOR, PIA, LEC, RUS, ANT, HAM, HAD, ALB, BEA #F1 || #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/eUbRUciQAx

— Oracle Red Bull Racing | オラクル・レッドブルレーシング (@redbullracing) April 6, 2025

Villeneuve was commenting on Tsunoda trying to catch Gasly in the early part of the race (6/4 6:29 am) and said: “One thing that we didn’t consider is that Tsunoda, with a lot more downforce than his teammate, runs more fuel.

“Which means more fuel at the start of the race, not much difference at the end of the race, but more fuel at the start.

“More fuel is just never good, basically! And the more downforce means he has to hussle the car around a bit more, drive more aggressively, it’s not really paying off.”

Tsunoda admitted he would have changed his approach to the race in Japan if he could have taken part in the race weekend again after his set-up blunder.

However, he’s having to try and learn an awful lot about the car in a very limited amount of time, and his decisions at Suzuka will help guide with when he arrives at the next race in Bahrain.