Yuki Tsunoda admits Racing Bulls were ‘pretty impressed’ and ‘pretty happy’ with his one-off comeback performance at the Formula 1 Dutch GP.
Tsunoda finished the race just outside the points in P11 after stepping in for Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls at Zandvoort. Lawson jumped back in the Red Bull car as driver Isack Hadjar was sidelined by injury before the weekend, making room for Tsunoda to step in.
Despite Tsunoda being unfamiliar with the VCARB 03, he managed to stay close to rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad. While Tsunoda has previously driven for both Red Bull and Racing Bulls, he has never driven the new generation of cars under the new regulations, showing an impressive adaptability over the weekend.
“Honestly, I’m super happy,” Tsunoda said of the Zandvoort outing to media, including Motorsport Week.
“Certainly, I enjoyed so much this qualifying. Yesterday’s qualifying was OK, but I didn’t know where was the limit still, it was still a fresh car.
“But this qualifying was a bit more like a proper qualifying, able to trust more the car and throw the car into the corners.
“I know where I can improve much more. But honestly, I missed this kind of feeling, the chasing last few milliseconds, last few tenths, and I’m super enjoying it, super enjoying it.”
The sole Free Practice session of the weekend saw the Japanese driver 0.825 seconds behind Lindblad, before he narrowed the gap in both Sprint Qualifying and Qualifying. In the Grand Prix, Tsunoda even managed to stay ahead of the rookie and finish one position higher, securing P11.
Learning on every single lap
Despite his impressive efforts, Tsunoda admitted that adapting to the new machinery did not come without difficulties.
“It’s a different car, it’s a completely different car,” he continued.
“The brake feeling, you know? I stepped into the VCARB simulator, and the first thing I felt, when I braked like last year, I was in the wall! The amount of pressure, those limits, it’s different. And downforce especially is also different. Also deploying energy, where to discharge and everything, suddenly you get deceleration from the car.
“Those things, it was not easy to adapt. Honestly, a lot of things I have to get up to speed [with], but to be honest I was able to get used to it faster than I expected. So, I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve done.”
The Red Bull reserve driver revealed that the Sprint race helped him improve for Qualifying as he was learning on every single lap.
“That 24 laps, every single lap I was able to learn, and I think I was able to prove that in this qualifying, every single session I was coming closer and closer,” he said.
Racing Bulls “pretty impressed” with Tsunoda
Moreover, the reserve driver expressed that while Racing Bulls hoped for a double Q3 entry, they were happy with his efforts.
“The team obviously wanted both cars to be in Q3. But from yesterday, they were pretty impressed with what I’ve done and pretty happy with the steps I’ve done for each session, every lap. It would have been better, obviously, if I got through Q3 today.” Tsunoda said.
The Japanese driver nearly made it into Q3; however, a tenth of a second separated him from the last part of Qualifying. Lindblad’s lap time was 1:12.525, and Tsunoda’s time was 1:12.627, while Pierre Gasly separated the two Racing Bulls. Still, lining up P12 on the grid was not bad. Especially for his first outing this season.
His strong efforts left him well placed to stay close to the top ten for the Grand Prix. Despite failing to secure points at Zandvoort, his performance proved impressive.
“But I didn’t meet the team yet, so maybe they’re angry, I don’t know, we’ll see,” Tsunoda added jokingly.
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