Yuki Tsunoda quashed the notion that he misses being at Racing Bulls, despite his troubles adapting to Red Bull’s Formula 1 car continuing at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Tsunoda’s spell with Red Bull reached a new low in Barcelona as an elimination in Q1 with the slowest lap time condemned him to recording another point-less return.
The result meant that Tsunoda logged a meagre one point over the recent triple-header, contributing to Red Bull dropping to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Tsunoda’s declining pace gap to Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen has coincided with his ex-Racing Bulls stablemate Isack Hadjar thriving with the satellite squad.
The Frenchman has outscored Tsunoda since the latter’s move to Red Bull, while Liam Lawson, whom he switched spots with, has out-qualified him since the change.
That has provided credence to the intuition that Racing Bulls’ VCARB 02 is a more benign car to tame than the capricious-handling RB21 that Red Bull has assembled.
But when asked whether he misses piloting the Racing Bulls that he excelled with earlier in the campaign, Tsunoda told media including Motorsport Week: “Not at all.
“I’m happy with Red Bull obviously, and I’m glad to see the Racing Bulls have been having good progression since last year.
“I’ve shown in the first two races that the guys are performing well. Now going to the Red Bull, new challenge, but still, like I said, I was pretty happy with the pace.
“Just this Grand Prix was really strange, but I still believe that I can do something better, something that no one was expecting.
“So I’m very happy to see they’re performing, but at the same time, I’m just really focusing now on Red Bull, how I can work even better.”
Tsunoda not concerned by latest Red Bull setback
Tsunoda, who contended that something was “not right” with his car in Spain as he ended up in 13th place, denied that he was concerned about his alarming setback.
“To be honest, this Grand Prix, for me, is a bit special,” he reiterated. “It’s a Grand Prix that feels weird and doesn’t feel right at all.
“So I’m not really thinking anything much about this Grand Prix.
“Apart from this, it’s up and down, but at least I’m happy with the pace I’m showing, I’m showing a couple of sessions.
“And I mean, there wasn’t much drivers in the past that, in some sessions, even started faster than Max.
“So, obviously, to be at his level, I need, for sure, a lot of steps improvement, but at least some sessions that I’m able to match with him. So, mixed.”
Tsunoda convinced he can close Verstappen gap
Tsunoda is convinced he will begin to reduce the substantial margin to Verstappen once he understands how to unlock the RB21’s ultimate potential over a single lap.
“For sure, in qualifying, in the last few tenths, he’s able to extract more, especially in track evolution, lap, whatever,” he explained.
“Within the qualifying, the track condition changed. With that, I’m still trying to find the limit.
“Although in the previous car, in the vehicle, obviously, I know what’s happening in the background, how the car looks like, I can push further out.
“But, you know, not fully trusting yet about the car yet. Obviously, it’s kind of normal.
“That few milliseconds, few tenths is quite important. So those things, for sure, he’s extracting more than me, for now.”
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