Yuki Tsunoda Gives RB21 Assessment After Debut Weekend with Red Bull

After one full race weekend with Oracle Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda has finally had a few days to process his senior team debut at his home race in Japan.

Throughout many of the early sessions, Tsunoda was relatively close to Verstappen, especially when considering Liam Lawson's massive gap to the four-time champion and the fact that this is Tsunoda's first time driving the car.

As the weekend progressed, the results became increasingly frustrating for the Japanese driver. He managed to advance the second Red Bull car out of Q1 for the first time, although he was eliminated in Q2, finishing behind the man he replaced, Lawson.

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Tsunoda was confidently anticipating a podium finish, so his 12th-place result left him feeling frustrated.

Entering his second race weekend, Tsunoda feels more comfortable away from the circus of his home race.

“[Compared to] Thursday [at the] same time last week, I’m much calmer now just naturally because of less [PR] activities, and I’m able to have a bit more time to think about the preparation and everything,” he said.

レッドブルでのデビュー戦は12位でした。正直限られた時間の中でのパフォーマンスは予想以上だったのですが、やっぱり年に一度のホームグランプリでq3とポイントはとりたかった😭今まで以上のサポートとエネルギーを送ってくれた皆様に感謝しています！ものすごく楽しかったです🤩
first race in the… pic.twitter.com/NQODOVK2Hy
— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) April 7, 2025

“Also, now I know how the car behaves, at least a little bit more than how I started last week."

"Everything [is] positive, a couple of modifications I’ve done to adjust a little bit more, the seat and everything, so I think we’ll be good.”

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Heading into Bahrain, Yuki hopes to test more configurations to find an optimal setup and gain a better understanding of hidden weaknesses or potential strengths he can utilize.

"A lot of learning I did, but most of the learning I had is too early stages to conclude. I’ve just done four, five sessions, almost four sessions because of lots of red flags," Tsunoda said.

“I just need to do more laps, but the main learning in terms of car the set-up, I would say maybe I have to take a little bit of a different approach how I used to take in the Racing Bulls – the set-up I used to like, the car balance."

“I think the car is able to achieve the same balance that I used to have at Racing Bulls, but it not always helps the performance."

レッドブルでのデビュー戦は12位でした。正直限られた時間の中でのパフォーマンスは予想以上だったのですが、やっぱり年に一度のホームグランプリでq3とポイントはとりたかった😭今まで以上のサポートとエネルギーを送ってくれた皆様に感謝しています！ものすごく楽しかったです🤩
first race in the… pic.twitter.com/NQODOVK2Hy
— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) April 7, 2025

"I just have to dig in further, I just don’t know what set-up will make the car faster."

“It feels like a science room with lots of chemicals where sometimes it goes good, sometimes it goes bad."

"I think it’s just natural, because jumping into a completely new car [there is] always this up and down.”

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Tsunoda has also adjusted his expectations heading into the weekend, lowering the bar of whath e will count as a sucess.

“What I want to achieve this weekend is Q3 and points,” he stated.

“I think as much as I want to say a podium or whatever, we know that the car is not easy to operate in a high performance window."

“I have to still learn about the car, so if I get points or [can] be closer to Max to be able to help him in the race, and go into Q3, that would be a good target.”