Yuki Tsunoda hopes that this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix will provide something of a “reset” to his 2025 Formula 1 fortunes, as he says he “knows what’s going to happen” if he fails to perform.
Following his call-up to the Red Bull team after the Chinese Grand Prix for his home race at Suzuka, Tsunoda showed stronger form in the ‘parent’ team versus Liam Lawson – but his time at the team has been wildly inconsistent as he has struggled with the RB21’s handling.
After coming under fire for its handling of Lawson, Red Bull has tried to exercise patience with Tsunoda and gave the Japanese racer time in its title-winning RB19 following the Barcelona round to further his knowledge of its machinery.
Although discussions of a further change appear to be far off as Red Bull now appears to see the difficulties in the RB21, Tsunoda is under no illusions of where he’ll end up should he be unable to turn his form around. He says that Montreal should be able to help facilitate further improvements, as he reckons he’s slowly getting more comfortable with the car.
“As long as I don’t really perform myself, I know what’s going to happen and I know myself, it’s not the place I should be,” Tsunoda said.
“But let’s see. I have confidence that I can come back strong. You guys like to talk about the second seat, about Red Bull, but it is what it is.
“I know there are things I’ve improved in the past years and past races, especially at the start of this season. There’s a lot going on.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images
“I would say partly this kind of track will be the reset; I think my progress in terms of understanding is getting there, but I just need a bit of time to do it actually on the track with driving.
“It’s always easier to understand by doing it actually on the track. But I’m sure it will come at some point, and the progress is there. So I’m not really rushing it too much yet.”
Tsunoda was not keen to elaborate on which areas he wanted to see improvement, beyond stating that “I have some ideas”, but has been in Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory to further assist with his acclimatisation.
On his Barcelona test behind the wheel of the RB19, which preceded a Pirelli tyre test, Tsunoda said that there were certain “benefits” of the 2023 dominator that he’d like to see in the car – although remarked that there wasn’t too much difference.
“I had a lot of laps. I tried the RB19, especially driving with exactly the same track as how I also drove in the RB21 race week,” Tsunoda reviewed.
“So you can see a clear difference, but using the academy [control for TPC] tyres, so it’s a bit different there. I think I was able to give good feedback to them and give some ideas that maybe we can improve or we can take some benefits from the RB19.
“But generally, it’s not that huge of a difference, so it’s good. Also the [Pirelli] tyre test was for 2026, so I was only focused on the feedback.”
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