Red Bull boss Christian Horner has identified Yuki Tsunoda's trait of quickly understanding what the car wants and then getting on with the job as the key to his adaptation. The seat next to Max Verstappen has been a bone of contention for years now.
When Daniel Ricciardo left the team in 2018, he was replaced by Pierre Gasly. Since then, many drivers have found themselves in the second seat at Red Bull but have failed to keep up with Max Verstappen. The latest on the list of dismissals was Liam Lawson. The Kiwi was fired after just two races with the team as he looked completely out of sorts, and has been replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.
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However, unlike the Kiwi, Tsunoda has shown marked improvement in terms of adaptation. While Liam Lawson had struggled to get anywhere near Max Verstappen in the two-race weekend, the Japanese driver looked far more comfortable in the car, and although his qualifying was not ideal, his performance was certainly encouraging.
Red Bull's Christian Horner talked to Sky Sports prior to qualifying on Saturday and talked about one key trait from Yuki Tsunoda that might have helped. Horner revealed that the moment the Japanese driver sat down in the car, he understood what the complexities were and got on with the job.
Claiming that it was something that might have helped Tsunoda adapt a bit quicker, Horner said (as quoted by PlanetF1),
“In any organization, whoever is the dominant driver, you’re going to feed off his information and feedback, and that drives the direction of development. Now, what’s been interesting — Yuki has jumped in the car and said, ‘Well, yeah, doesn’t feel so much different. It’s a bit sharper in the front than the Racing Bulls, but the rest of it feels pretty familiar.”
He added,
“I think hopefully his experience will help to continue to develop the car in, obviously, a set of regulations that are now… you’re looking for minutiae to improve the car.”
Yuki Tsunoda did not have the best start to his journey at Red Bull, though. The qualifying was not as good, and even in the race he could only finish P12. Although an improvement from where Liam Lawson was, points would be on the agenda for the Japanese driver.
Yuki Tsunoda is winning everyone over at the team, according to Red Bull boss
Christian Horner was questioned about how well Yuki Tsunoda was gelling within the team, to which the team boss said that the driver has a different energy to him. Talking about how Tsunoda brought a different energy and expertise to the Austrian outfit, Horner said (via the aforementioned source):
“First of all, he’s a real character, and so he brings an energy into the meeting room. Whether he tries to be funny or not, he’s just naturally very funny. That’s a positive thing."
Praising the 24-year-old for his performances in Red Bull so far this season, Horner added:
“I think that he brings also a bunch of experience. I think he has now almost five years of experience behind him of driving Formula 1 cars. He’s ready for this step now, and I think that only time will tell. But so far, what we’ve seen in the first couple days, he’s done a decent job.”
Despite a P12 finish, it was still a decent enough weekend with Red Bull from Yuki, and will arguably instill a sense of confidence in the team for him, with Bahrain GP on the horizon.
