Yuki Tsunoda had his first real-world experience of Red Bull’s RB21 at the Japanese Grand Prix. The Suzuka circuit is loved by the drivers but it’s also one that will expose any aerodynamic weaknesses in their cars.
Red Bull dropped Liam Lawson for this weekend’s race, demoting him back to Racing Bulls and calling up Tsunoda. They’re banking on him to break the cycle of pain in the second seat.
Many inside and outside F1 felt Tsunoda deserved a chance at the end of last year when the team axed Sergio Perez. He’s vastly more experienced than Lawson, but that counted against him in a way, with Christian Horner impressed by the New Zealander’s relatively small deficit.
Tsunoda will make his 90th race start this weekend, having spent four full seasons at the de facto junior team. Still, that pales in comparison to Perez, who was 30 when he joined.
Yuki Tsunoda backtracks on Red Bull simulator verdict after just one day in the car
Speaking to the BBC before his Japanese Grand Prix debut, Tsunoda said his simulator sessions had given him confidence. Red Bull arguably disrespected Lawson by inviting his replacement to test the car virtually before the swap was publicly confirmed.
Helmut Marko was impressed by Tsunoda’s simulator run, and the new signing said the car wasn’t the ‘huge struggle’ others had made it out to be. He was optimistic that the correlation with the real-world RB21 would be strong.
“Getting into any new car is not easy,” he explained. “But at the same time, to be completely honest, I drove the simulator already, and I think the simulator correlates quite well. It’s close enough to feel the car.
“In the simulator at least, I didn’t feel a huge struggle or trickiness that other drivers were mentioning. At the same, I get what Max is saying in terms of sensitivity and a strong front end.”
However, Tsunoda backtracked on that verdict after the first two practice sessions on Friday. He said the difference was bigger than he had anticipated.
“It’s a bit different to what I felt in the simulator to be honest,” he admitted. “Maybe a little more than I expected in terms of car feeling, but I knew it’s always going to be a bit different in the car. It was just a bit more exaggerated in the real car and feeling a bit more tricky.”
Christian Horner makes Yuki Tsunoda’s life harder in Japanese Grand Prix interview
Tsunoda entered the weekend oozing confidence, though the same was true of Lawson before his two-race nightmare. He showed promise in FP1 but it does appear that he’s found the car surprisingly difficult to drive.
Perhaps he should have been braced for this. Max Verstappen feels Racing Bulls have a better car than Red Bull right now, and Tsunoda will now be able to cast an even more informed verdict.
The good news for the 24-year-old is that he’s been given until the end of the season. He knows he doesn’t necessarily need to be close to Verstappen immediately.
Horner has put Tsunoda under pressure, though, by suggesting he’ll acclimatise far quicker than his predecessor. Having initially talked about finishing on the podium, the 2021 debutant has revised his target to points.
