Tsunoda surprised after first races with Red Bull: ‘I'm like Verstappen at this’

Yuki Tsunoda will start his third F1 Grand Prix weekend in Saudi Arabia with Red Bull Racing. Over the past weeks, the Japanese driver has learned a lot, including about his new teammate Max Verstappen.

No test days, no run-up period. Just some time in the simulator in Milton Keynes, and that was effectively the end of Yuki Tsunoda's preparation for his debut with Red Bull Racing. The two Grand Prix in Japan and Bahrain were the only moments the Japanese driver had to settle into the new working environment.

Given the many unknowns for him with regards to the RB21, it’s not outlandish that Tsunoda peeks at what Max Verstappen is doing on his side of the garage. During the media day in Saudi Arabia, which GPblog attended, Tsunoda was asked if he kept tabs on what Verstappen does and if he was amazed at how the Dutchman worked. His first reply: it’s a ‘good question’.

Tsunoda has a Similar F1 Driving Style to Verstappen

Then the Japanese says: “Not so far, not much, I would say. Already the car condition, the team is putting massive effort to make it as close as possible. I guess it is a bit of a test. So far, in driving style, actually, how the brake shape and releasing part, everything is quite close. I mean, I never thought about how the driving start between us, but so far it's not too far away,” is Tsunoda's surprise.

But there are also differences with the reigning world champion, Tsunoda notes: "Yeah, it's like he he can feel more than myself in the car, like how the tyre temp looks like, getting out of the garage. And in qualifying, this is a good example, the track temp is going lower and lower throughout the qualifying, and he adjusts [to] it, Q1 to Q3. When the temperature is going lower he adjusted himself in how he should warm up, how he should put pressure into the tyres in each corner to increase the lap time or increase the pace of the out lap or whatever but inside for me I couldn't, which I did in the VCARB. Because probably I'm not fully relaxing driving this car."

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