{"id":32208,"date":"2025-03-31T04:59:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32208"},"modified":"2025-03-31T04:59:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T08:59:49","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-gives-positive-feedback-after-rb21-simulator-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/31\/yuki-tsunoda-gives-positive-feedback-after-rb21-simulator-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda gives positive feedback after RB21 simulator session"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was only a few months ago that Yuki Tsunoda missed out on a Red Bull contract. At the time, the decision to put Lawson alongside Verstappen<\/a> seemed hugely damaging for Tsunoda’s career – given the lack of available seats for 2026.<\/p>\n

In a shocking turn of events, the 24-year-old must rise to the challenge of adapting to the RB21<\/a> from the Japanese GP.<\/p>\n

Without any testing in Red Bull’s 2025 challenger, Tsunoda is being thrown into the deep-end.<\/p>\n

Despite this, he is keeping a level-head when approaching his first weekend for the Milton Keynes outfit.<\/p>\n

At least initially, his sensations about the RB21 are encouraging.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda not intimidated by prospect of joining Red Bull<\/h2>\n

Since Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine, Tsunoda has wasted no time in establishing himself as the reference at VCARB.<\/p>\n

Having dispatched of De Vries and Ricciardo, the Japanese driver’s belief he deserved a Red Bull seat became more explicit as last season progressed.<\/p>\n

In various statements to the media, Tsunoda explained he would work to overcome any unfavourable characteristics of his Red Bull cars.<\/p>\n

It was at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi when Tsunoda<\/a> could speak with most authority on this issue.<\/p>\n

He described the RB20 as a car which suits his “driving style”, downplaying suggestions he would struggle at the main team.<\/p>\n

Of course, these comments failed to convince Red Bull to promote him for the start of 2025. For all intents and purposes, his post-season test was a formality – with Lawson already selected as Perez’s successor prior.<\/p>\n

Still, with Tsunoda now a Red Bull driver, his feedback becomes important to note.<\/p>\n

His comments are consistent with Christian Horner’s recent remarks that Tsunoda performed “very well”<\/a> in the RB20.<\/p>\n

Inevitable, the Red Bull team principal’s quotes beg the question – why wasn’t Tsunoda promoted earlier?<\/p>\n

Whilst this is a valid point to raise, it does not necessarily change the state of play at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen cannot being the only consistent source of points in the RB21.<\/p>\n

Despite the tricky circumstances surrounding his promotion. Tsunoda must rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n

Initial reaction to RB21 simulator session<\/h4>\n

It would be a stretch to suggest that definitive conclusions about driver performance can be drawn from simulator sessions.<\/p>\n

There is always a significant difference between the simulation and reality<\/a> – particularly with this current generation of cars.<\/p>\n

Still, this is not to suggest that such a crucial aspect of driver and team preparation should be overlooked.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event ahead of this weekend’s Japanese GP, Tsunoda explained his Red Bull outlook:<\/p>\n

“My priority is to understand the car, how it behaves compared to the VCARB.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If I can naturally enjoy driving it as I get familiar with it in FP1, then the results will follow.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And if that leads to a podium finish, that would be incredible.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I spent about two days in the [Red Bull] simulator,” <\/em>revealed Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

“From that experience, I didn’t find the car that challenging to drive.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If you ask whether it felt tricky to handle, I wouldn’t say it gave me a particularly strange feeling, at least in the simulator.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Of course, how I want to set up the car is probably different from Max.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I want to develop my own car set-up, get a good understanding of it, and gradually get up to speed from FP1.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was only a few months ago that Yuki Tsunoda missed out on a Red Bull contract. At the time, the decision to put Lawson alongside Verstappen seemed hugely damaging for Tsunoda’s career – given the lack of available seats for 2026. In a shocking turn of events, the 24-year-old must rise to the challenge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,78,2394,2246],"class_list":["post-32208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-tsunoda","tag-vcarb"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32212,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32208\/revisions\/32212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}