Yuki Tsunoda has brushed off his father’s matter-of-fact assessment of his performances since stepping up into the Red Bull team.

Tsunoda’s father was less than complimentary about how the young Japanese driver has responded since being promoted from Racing Bulls (VCARB) into the senior Red Bull team.

What did Yuki Tsunoda’s father say?

Tsunoda was promoted to the Red Bull team after the second round of the championship, following the struggles of Liam Lawson to adjust to the rapid rise from the VCARB squad.

Tsunoda’s greater experience has resulted in some occasional flashes of speed, particularly as he raced to a season-best result of ninth in Bahrain, but the results Tsunoda has achieved in the second RB21 continue to pale into insignificance compared to what Max Verstappen is managing in the other car.

At Imola last weekend, Tsunoda’s event was heavily compromised by a big crash early in Q1 as he went off into the barriers at high speed, fortunately escaping injury as his car rolled over in the scary incident.

A change of survival cell and having to mix specifications of parts as Tsunoda was forced to use some older components following Red Bull’s introduction of upgrades in recent races triggered a pitlane start, from where he recovered to 10th place and a points finish.

But his weekend at Imola was bluntly assessed by his father Nobuaki Tsunoda in an interview with Yahoo Sports Japan, in which he said, “In his rookie year [2021], he crashed in qualifying at Imola too — and it was the exact same kind of unnecessary push. Now in his fifth year, he’s making the same mistake again?

“Maybe he was angry at himself — for wrecking the car completely, or making such a rookie error. Whenever things go well for him, he tends to become overly optimistic. That’s the troubling part.

“People say he managed the tyres well or held off [Fernando] Alonso’s charge — but, to me, those are just basic expectations. What stuck with me was the qualifying crash. I just couldn’t let that go.”

Tsunoda was asked about his father’s comments on Thursday in Monaco, and was clearly eager to brush off the statements.

“I’m not listening to my dad, so it’s okay,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I don’t really have the energy to reply to these things, I don’t care.

“I know myself enough, so…”

Tsunoda’s crash is understood to have cost Red Bull around £1 million, a hefty hit under the budget cap, but there was no shying away from his responsibility for the crash – either at Imola, where he rued trying to drive like a “hero”, or in the calmer conditions coming into the Monaco weekend.

“It wouldn’t happen like that, if I understand about the car. The VCARB, that kind of crash, since 2022, I don’t think I have it,” he said.

“I’m just lacking the understanding of how the car gonna behave with each setup.

“The setup I tried was completely new and the Red Bull car changes more than I expected. The VCARB car didn’t change a lot or have that much of a difference.

“The approach I took just jumping in at this early stage with Red Bull is wrong but, at the same time, it’s not like the approach that I did just suddenly from Imola – I was doing that kind of thing all throughout my career, almost.

“I just have to take it slightly easier when I change something in the setup when I try something new, that’s the kind of learning.

With Red Bull put on the back foot in terms of the number of produced upgraded parts – Tsunoda is likely to be constantly behind Verstappen’s specification for the immediate future.

“After Imola, I don’t know how the allocation is gonna be in terms of the components and everything, I don’t think we’re gonna have a full one,” he said, saying he won’t be running all of the latest specification parts on his car this weekend.

“I was on the back step anyway. So it’s my fault. But, yeah, I think we need a bit more time, at least a bit more time to be at least the same car. ”

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