The challenge facing Yuki Tsunoda? To master a car built for Max Verstappen
Tsunoda makes his Red Bull F1 debut in Japan this weekend – and he certainly does not lack confidence
Out of all the drivers who have tried and failed to fulfil their promise at Red Bull, Alex Albon put it best – in a non-F1 spiel – in explaining the seismic challenge one faces with a car engineered to the demands of the team’s leading driver, Max Verstappen.
Now forming one half of Williams’s impressive driver line-up alongside Carlos Sainz after a difficult 18-month spell at Red Bull in 2019-20, Albon told The High Performace Podcast in 2023: “I would say my driving style is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front-end, so quite sharp, quite direct.
“Max does too, but his level of sharp and direct is a whole different level – it’s eye-wateringly sharp. To give people kind of maybe an explanation of what that might feel like: if you bump up the sensitivity [on a computer game] completely to the max, and you move that mouse, and it’s just darting across the screen everywhere, that’s kind of how it feels.
“It becomes so sharp that it makes you a little bit tense.”
That sensitivity and haphazardness show the scale of the task ahead for Yuki Tsunoda, ahead of his Red Bull debut this weekend at his home race in Japan. Tsunoda received the call-up after a torrid first two races for Liam Lawson in Australia and China, which included a crash and two back-of-the-pack qualifying results.
Would Red Bull stay patient – or chop and change? The last decade has shown us that the axe Christian Horner and Helmut Marko wielded was no surprise, even after two races.
For Tsunoda, it is a terrific opportunity; of that, there is no doubt. The 24-year-old is in his fifth season in F1 and, originally overlooked for Sergio Perez’s seat in December, the Japanese driver seemed somewhat stuck at the Red Bull junior team. Too quick to stay forever; too unpredictable to warrant a promotion.
Yet now that time has arrived, appetisingly at his home event in Suzuka. Tsunoda was pictured saying goodbye to his friends at junior team Racing Bulls on Thursday, a day on from appearing in Red Bull colours for the first time publicly at a show-run in Tokyo. There’s no doubt who the talk of the town is.
But can he really work at one with his machinery in a way former teammates of Verstappen, such as Albon (2019-20), Pierre Gasly (2019) and Sergio Perez (2021-24), ultimately could not? It is a daunting challenge.
Tsunoda spent much of last week in Red Bull’s simulator in Milton Keynes and admitted on Thursday he could already feel the “instability” of this year’s unpredictable Red Bull car, the RB21.
“The simulator obviously is not fully correct in terms of the trickiness of the car, but at least it didn’t feel crazy tricky,” Tsunoda said. “I can feel what the drivers mentioned about the instability or lack of driving confidence.
“I did multiple set-ups that I wanted to try to make it better and those two days seemed pretty productive. I know what kind of direction I want to start and it seems to be a good baseline in terms of overall performance. So yeah, it was a really good simulator session.”
Unlike Lawson – at a new track in Shanghai a fortnight ago – Tsunoda will have the usual full set of three practice sessions this weekend to find his tune with the quirkiness of this year’s Red Bull challenger. And the early signs were promising, as he finished sixth overall on the timesheet on Friday, just 0.1 seconds behind Verstappen.
Yet even Verstappen, who only trails championship leader Lando Norris (who was quickest in first practice on Friday, with teammate Oscar Piastri fastest in the disrupted second session) by eight points despite his complaints, acknowledges that the RB21 needs a lot of work to become a championship contender as the season progresses.
“It is a little bit more nervous, a little bit more unstable in different corner phases,” Verstappen explained. The Dutchman, who implied he did not agree with Red Bull’s decision to drop Lawson, spent a portion of last week in Milton Keynes last week as well, keen to analyse and improve the car with his engineers.
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” he elaborated. “It depends also on the corner speed, the tarmac, tyres, overheating, bumps, kerbs. Some tracks are more limiting than others. Some issues are easier to solve than others. Everyone is trying their hardest to make the car faster.”
Meanwhile, Tsunoda insists he has “confidence” in his own driving ability (after two impressive qualifying performances in the Racing Bull so far this year) and coupled with his new-found composure (as discussed with The Independent this week), there is little doubt that he is hitting his prime.
However, he’d be sensible to keep his feet on the ground.
Even Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton has emphasised that expectations should be kept minimal when moving to a new team, with new personnel and practices to get accustomed to, as well as obviously the car itself.
Yet for now, nobody seems to have told Tsunoda that. The Japanese star already has his sights set on a home podium and is brimming with confidence.
“Everybody supports me a lot and tries not to put pressure on me, which is very kind of them,” he said.
“But honestly, make sure you have high expectations – and give me all the pressure you can!”
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