Yuki Tsunoda made the “unfortunate” choice of setting up his RB21 for the rain, rain that never fell during the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix.

It meant for the third race in succession, but with a different driver behind the wheel as of Suzuka, the second RB21 failed to score a point.

Yuki Tsunoda finished P12 on his Red Bull debut

Tsunoda’s Red Bull dream came true at the Japanese Grand Prix, the local hero stepping into the RB21 after Red Bull higher-ups called time on Liam Lawson’s very brief stint at Max Verstappen’s team-mate.

Tsunoda ticked off one of the boxes that Lawson wasn’t able to when he made it out of Q1 on Saturday. However, his qualifying journey ended in Q2 when he finished with the 15th fastest time, one place lower than Lawson in the Racing Bulls F1 car.

Tsunoda was quick to turn that around, passing Lawson at the start of the 53-lap Japanese Grand Prix before finding himself stuck in a Red Bull past-and-present train led by Pierre Gasly and completed by Carlos Sainz.

Although Tsunoda was ahead of Gasly at the chequered flag, his P12 result meant the second RB21 once again failed to score.

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“I feel very frustrated and disappointed not to score points, but it is what it is,” said Tsunoda.

“Next time when I come to my home Grand Prix, I’ll be in a better shape, and hopefully I can aim for more than a top five.

“In terms of setup, it was more towards the rain, which didn’t happen. That was a bit unfortunate. Unfortunate.

“I knew it was going to be tough for overtaking, and I was expecting, if the situation like tyre degradation was massive, it could be a really good situation, but degradation was even zero.

“So everything was probably not towards me. But at same time, I learned a lot of things about the car with this decent 52 laps, so I’m excited for the next race.”

Not only did Tsunoda opt for a wet setup, the 24-year-old also didn’t ran the same level of downforce as his race-winning team-mate Max Verstappen. The Dutchman ran a notably smaller rear wing throughout the Suzuka weekend, meaning his RB21 had more instability but also more speed.

Asked if he thinks he could ‘live with that’ that change in future races, Tsunoda revealed he did consider swapping but that the spate of red flags during the practice sessions meant he decided to stick with the wing he started with in FP1.

“I think so,” he said of a future change. “To be honest, after FP3 I was considering going lower, as much as Max, but I didn’t have much time because of fire, red flag, whatever. And also we were changing a lot of setups. I never had a consistent car, consistent laps.

“So yeah, I thought I just want to keep it the same car. It’s a qualifying race, because there was a chance for rain, I just wanted to have a consistent car.

“But if I have the exact same Grand Prix, I’d go a different way.”

The Japanese driver touched on the differences between the VCARB 02 that he ran in the first two races and the Red Bull he was driving in Japan, saying: “It’s quite a lot of difference, especially how to operate the tyres is a lot different,” he said. “That was one of the things that made me struggle this weekend, but at least now I know what’s the reason, at least, and I just have to do better.”

But believing his progress over the weekend was “probably more than expected”, he added: “In terms of confidence level, it is completely different compared to what I started in FP1 this weekend.

“I’m sure if I had another qualifying, it would be a little bit different. It’s too late. I don’t have any more. I just have to do better in the next race.”

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