Yuki Tsunoda says the wet set-up didn’t help in F1 Japanese GP which was otherwise a good start to Red Bull stint, concurred by Christian Horner.
In his first outing with Red Bull in F1 Japanese GP, Tsunoda ended up out of points but performed fairly well as opposed to how Liam Lawson had been in the two races. His qualifying was cut short in Q2 when he had a moment at Turn 1 and in the grand prix, he made places but it was not enough.
The race, on the whole, was pretty straightforward with only handful gaining anything. In fact, the Top 10 saw only one place gain for Lewis Hamilton over Isack Hadjar. Considering how the grand pirx panned out, Tsunoda was not hugely down despite frustration due to qualifying miss.
His car was set-up more towards rain which hurt slightly and he couldn’t push towards Max Verstappen’s set-up due to lack of running and experience. “In terms of the set-up itself, it was more towards the rain, which didn’t happen,” said Tsunoda to media. “That was a bit unfortunate.
“I knew it was going to be tough overtaking, and I was expecting, if the situation like tyre degradation was massive, it could be a really good situation. But the degradation was zero. So everything was probably not towards me. But at the same time, I learned a lot of things about the car. These decent 52 laps are the first time I’ve got, so I’m excited for the next race.
“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 wanted 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.”
Irrespective of the results, Tsunoda was happy with the progress he could make in the three sessions. He could gel with the team as well, who were positive with him. “In terms of progress I’ve had this week, it’s far more than expected, to be honest,” he continued. “I just keep doing what I’m doing. Like I said, 52 laps was very big for me.
“In terms of confidence level, it’s completely different compared to what I started with 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. It’s [Red Bull and Racing Bulls cars] quite a lot of difference, especially how to operate the tyres is a lot different.
“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. In terms of environment, actually the mechanics are quite similar, no offence to you know, British, but it’s a bit more like straight, right, but actually they are very very friendly. They’re all English.
“I thought they will be more direct, but very friendly, as much as Italians. They are very-very supportive, even today, after the race, they were saying, good job, every mechanic said good job. I’m excited for the next race. So in terms of motivation, I’m happy they are able to give the motivation. And also the engineering group, they are very supportive to make it work. I am very happy with the environment so far.
“Overall, I don’t think I started negative this weekend, at least positive, so I feel I had a good start, apart from the results. So I just use this kind of learning, the progress, the amount of speed I have throughout the week so far, and I just keep continuing from Bahrain. But from Bahrain, I’m expecting for sure more than this, so I just have to push more,” summed up Tsunoda.
Team boss Horner had positive words for the Japanese driver as well. He feels he has settled in well and now has to build on the performance in the races to come. “I think that he’s settled into the team,” he said to media. “He’s given very good feedback. I think, unfortunately for him, his FP1 was very strong, FP3 was fine, Q1 he was only a tenth away from Max, Q2 he made a mistake.
“He was 15k’s quicker than he’s ever been into Turn 1, had a moment and then you’re chasing the lap the rest of the way. So, qualifying 14th dictated his race. He made an overtake and had an undercut on Pierre Gasly and then spent the rest of the afternoon looking at Fernando Alonso’s rear wing. But in a race where there was… I can’t remember seeing any overtakes at all.
“I think that had he qualified higher, he would have finished naturally higher, and I think he’s given good feedback. I think that now he’s finding his feet in the team, we’ll see over the next few races that performance will step forward,” summed up Horner, who put up kind words for Hadjar’s performance and Liam Lawson settling in back with the Visa Cash App RB team.
“Isack….I sincerely hope that he has recovered from qualifying after problem with his nuts – which wasn’t wheel nuts,” continued Horner. “He drove a great race, very impressive. I think Liam again is settling back into the team there, it was all dictated by qualifying, so we have to give him few races. We have spoken throughout the weekend, I saw him on the grid around his car, I saw him at the Honda barbeque. He just needs to find bit of time and he will find his feet.”
Here’s McLaren, Red Bull duo on Japanese GP fight
Here’s how F1 Japanese GP panned out
