Max Verstappen's new teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, didn't think that the driver would tell him the truth if he asked for inputs with the tricky Red Bull car. The intriguing comment came as a surprise, as the Dutch driver has often been termed as a bit of an open book within the team and has always tried to help his teammates whenever possible.
Tsunoda is stepping into a lion's den at Red Bull, as he is now the third driver to be teamed up with Verstappen in the last four races. Not only that, but he will be the fifth driver hired for the second car since Daniel Ricciardo left at the end of 2018.
Since the Australian's departure, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, and Liam Lawson have tried their hand in the second Red Bull car and failed. The last driver was Lawson, who was dropped after a couple of races.
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Yuki Tsunoda, however, has looked for a challenge and has welcomed the pressure that was part of the territory.
Talking about his acclimatization to the car, Tsunoda took a sly dig at Max Verstappen when he said that he didn't expect his Red Bull team to tell him the truth if he asked any questions about the car. He told the media, including Racingnews365:
"When I tap him on the shoulder to ask questions about the car, I don't expect him to tell the truth. I have to discover for myself in the data how he drives, also with the onboards. I have already watched videos of the last three races. The thing is that I haven't really felt anything strange about the car (in the simulator, ed.). I have to feel it myself and it also depends on the driving style. The car behaves differently."
Max Verstappen's new teammate Yuki Tsunoda leaning on his experience and his race engineer
Instead of relying on Max Verstappen and his input, Yuki Tsunoda said that he was going to use his experience and his race engineer's feedback to understand how to get on top of the car.
The Japanese driver is succeeding Liam Lawson, who had a poor track record in the two opportunities he had, where he could not even get out of Q1. One of the major issues was the inability to have a better understanding of the car. Talking about his preparation and how he planned to tackle things, Tsunoda said:
"As soon as I feel the car, with my five years of experience I have an idea to figure it out and see where I'm still struggling. I don't ask many questions and I'm going to find out with my engineers. My race engineer is very helpful and already shared a number of characteristics that don't give the driver much confidence. The information is in my head and it's clear. Then we'll see how it goes."
The first race of the season is going to be tense for the Japanese driver as he's racing in his hometown in a car that's very hard to drive with Max Verstappen in the other cockpit. The F1 Japanese Grand Prix is going to be an interesting experience for everyone involved.
