Yuki Tsunoda has confirmed he will run the same Red Bull RB21 as Max Verstappen at Imola, but he has no idea if the team’s new floor will bring any notable gains.

Red Bull upgraded the RB21 at the Miami Grand Prix, but only Verstappen ran the new floor as he raced his way to pole position before finishing fourth in the grand prix.

Yuki Tsunoda to run same spec Red Bull RB21 as Max Verstappen at Imola GP

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Tsunoda stepped up to Red Bull Racing at round three of the F1 2025 championship when the team made the call to demote Liam Lawson, who failed to progress from Q1 in his two appearances for the team in Australia and China.

Tsunoda achieved that feat immediately and has since scored six points for his new team. In that same period, however, Verstappen has scored 63.

Red Bull have been impressed with Tsunoda’s progress with team principal Christian Horner saying: “He’s finding his feet, he’s brought a decent amount of experience and he’s giving good feedback.

F1 2025 head-to-head stats: Red Bull Racing

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“I have to say, he’s brought a really positive energy into the team – he’s quite a character – and he’s certainly rapid. I think as he finds confidence, we’ll see him move further up the grid.”

But finding that confidence in the car is not easy with Tsunoda saying while he had “muscle memory” when it came to the Racing Bulls F1 car, he is making “some unpredictable movements” with the RB21.

Asked to expand on that, he told media including PlanetF1.com at Imola: “No, not just oversteer.

“I think as a driver, when you attack the corner, always when you push a lot you exceed the limit of the car can handle but sometimes without maybe understeer or oversteer you can use that opportunity, the amount of movement you have in the car entry to turn faster basically.

“I can do that. I could do that easily in the VCARB car, but because the Red Bull car, the window, that kind of opportunity and the timing that you have to turn the steering into the corner, it’s quite narrow.

“And the thing is that I’ve not really defined yet what kind of window or timing I should turn in exactly. So it’s always you have bit more disconnected feeling, probably more than Max who can do it.

“And those things are coming from, I guess, experience, but I think it’s getting there.

“So it’s another race weekend this weekend and we’ll get at least closer to Max’s car, so looking forward to what kind of car exactly.”

This weekend Tsunoda will race the same spec RB21 at Verstappen having run the old floor last time out in Miami.

“If I understand correctly, it’s going to be the same car as Max this weekend so at least I’ll get to know what exactly are the limitations,” he said.

“I’ve always had a different floor, or whatever it was.”

But whether the new floor lived up to expectations, Tsunoda says he actually does not know.

“I don’t know, I think so,” he said when asked about the team’s thoughts.

Tsunoda is 11th in the Drivers’ Championship on nine points with Verstappen sitting third on 99.

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