Yuki Tsunoda’s Struggles with the RB21 amidst Red Bull Debut

In a historic moment for Red Bull Racing, Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda has qualified for Q3 for the first time since joining the team in Bahrain. Despite starting from 10th on the grid tomorrow, Tsunoda is still grappling with the challenges posed by the RB21.

The Arrival of a New Driver

Tsunoda joined Red Bull Racing when rookie Liam Lawson was moved back to the sister team, Racing Bulls, after just two race weekends of the year. After a 12th-place finish in front of his home crowd in Japan, Tsunoda is still finding his footing with the RB21.

The Red Bull driver shared an update on his adaptation to the team, stating:”I’ll take it. Obviously, as a driver you want more, but considering what I had in practice, and it’s only my second race, I’ll still take it,” he explained.”It’s just difficult. It’s not easy being in the window which this car operates, which is quite narrow.

He continued, “I’m trying lots of things to be in that window consistently. It’s natural that I’ll be up and down, which I had in free practice. I just won’t rush it, and progress step by step.” Long run in P2 was not good but at the same time, the car is different as well. Also, the run I had then was not really amazing for myself, so just have to tune it slightly more as a driver and also the car, to drive fast.

Confidence Levels and Team Performance

Tsunoda’s team-mate Max Verstappen has also been finding the car difficult this weekend. He lamented:”All weekend it has been difficult, just struggling on brake feel and stopping power basically. Besides that just also very difficult grip.

Now, I feel that maybe the tyre grip that we are getting out of the car and that’s why also set-up wise we have thrown the car around a lot and nothing really seems to give you a clear direction. So I guess that also shows we are struggling also with other things.

He further added, “I have no idea how they [the extra set of hard tyres he has saved for the race] will perform. I think it will be quite high deg but also on the hard tyre you have quite low mechanical grip so naturally you will slide a bit more and I have no idea how that will work out. But at least it’s an option to have and then we’ll see what happens with it.

Despite these challenges, both drivers are optimistic about their performance in the upcoming race. The team is working tirelessly to fine-tune the RB21 for optimal performance. Stay tuned for more updates!