Ted Kravitz spied something ‘very significant’ in Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull garage before Japanese Grand Prix woes

Yuki Tsunoda qualified a disappointing 15th for his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix. The new signing failed to live up to the promise he showed in practice.

Tsunoda was only a tenth behind teammate Max Verstappen in FP1, and kept the margin to a respectable three tenths in FP3. But a mistake cost him in Q2 as the gap grew to half a second.

It’s worth noting that predecessor Liam Lawson failed to escape the first segment of qualifying in three attempts. In that respect, Tsunoda has already been an upgrade, but he would have been targeting the top 10 at the very least in front of his home crowd.

As some suspected, on the basis that Racing Bulls have a more compliant car than Red Bull, Lawson actually outqualified Tsunoda. Verstappen went on to take a shock pole position, while Isack Hadjar impressed once again in P7.

Red Bull took a ‘safety first’ approach with Yuki Tsunoda at the Japanese Grand Prix

Moments before Japanese Grand Prix qualifying, Sky Sports analyst Ted Kravitz spotted a major difference between the two Red Bull cars. Tsunoda was running much more downforce than Verstappen.

Kravitz suspects that Red Bull went down the ‘safety’ route with the 24-year-old. His set-up may have been slower overall, but it theoretically made the car easier to drive.

Team principal Christian Horner had hinted at this when he stressed the importance of giving Tsunoda a ‘predictable’ RB21.

“I’ve spied a very significant difference on the downforce levels of both of these cars,” Kravitz said. “Yuki has got a distinctly bigger rear-wing angle on his car.

“We heard from Christian talking about the balance of the car. We also heard him earlier in the weekend talking about giving Yuki Tsunoda a more predictable car, a car that’s not going to bite him.

“It might be a bit slower, but that’s what Horner says. And I can see it in the garage. You look at the rear wing of Max Verstappen, that’s quite a shallow angle. Then you swap to the left-hand side, that is a thick angle rear wing. So it’s safety first for Yuki Tsunoda.”

After his Q2 exit, though, Kravitz’s colleague Jacques Villeneuve suggested that the approach had backfired.

“I think he’s paying the price for his set-up choice,” the Canadian said.

Was this Christian Horner comment a mistake before Yuki Tsunoda debut?

Tsunoda initially targeted a podium at the Japanese GP before revising his expectation for points. He’ll still be optimistic of giving Red Bull their first double score of the season.

Perhaps there was a hint after practice that he could struggle in qualifying. Tsunoda admitted he was wrong about the correlation between the simulator and the real-world RB21.

After his virtual laps, he felt the car was easier to drive than some had made out. But he quickly backtracked on those comments.

Horner arguably put more pressure on Tsunoda by suggesting his adaptation would be smooth relative to Lawson. He has at least been given until the end of the season, which should allow him to work through his issues more calmly.