{"id":33156,"date":"2025-04-26T10:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33156"},"modified":"2025-04-26T10:39:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:39:25","slug":"red-bull-pleased-with-yuki-tsunoda-initial-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/red-bull-pleased-with-yuki-tsunoda-initial-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull pleased with Yuki Tsunoda initial performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last twelve months have been a rollercoaster of emotion for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/10\/yuki-tsunoda-reveals-red-bull-and-vcarb-set-up-differences\/\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, more so away from the track than on it. His performances for the last few years have been solid, cementing himself as a driver worthy of being on the grid.<\/p>\n<p>However, as the 2025 season inched closer, there was no clear indication Red Bull were going to promote him.<\/p>\n<p>It was only a last-minute and frankly unprecedented change of heart at Red Bull &#8211; sparked by Liam Lawson&#8217;s acute struggles &#8211; that saw Tsunoda placed alongside Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this rocky road to the senior team, the 24-year-old is establishing a strong foundation to cement himself at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n<h2>Helmut Marko: Tsunoda has the correct approach<\/h2>\n<p>At first glance, Tsunoda&#8217;s first three Grand Prix with Red Bull did not yield any spectacular results.<\/p>\n<p>Two points across three races, whilst teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/06\/red-bull-verstappen-sense-mclaren-weakness-upgrades-arriving\/\" target=\"_self\">Max Verstappen<\/a> claimed a win and two podiums, hardly seems like adequate output.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the context behind these results paints a far more encouraging picture.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda was unlucky not to finish higher up in Suzuka, with a risky qualifying strategy from Red Bull essentially ruining his chances on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"BiuiE1xkSZ5eF_b4nnPjKA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2209753764\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'BiuiE1xkSZ5eF_b4nnPjKA',sig:'0gbsHc8H9VtsZA3-TPxxB3ormlUfP5tqyMtPFpkaPAI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2209753764',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His p9 finish in Bahrain was respectable in the context of Verstappen&#8217;s P6 result, at a circuit where the RB21 was struggling badly.<\/p>\n<p>An unfortunate incident with Pierre Gasly in Jeddah threw away his best chance for points, with his pace in qualifying and Free Practice suggestion a top 6 finish was on the cards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/helmut-marko-praises-revelation-isack-hadjar\/\" target=\"_self\">Helmut Marko<\/a> touched upon some of these themes in his assessment of the #22 driver:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;An interim assessment of Yuki Tsunoda in the second car after his first three weekends with Red Bull Racing,&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>he wrote on <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.speedweek.com\/formel1\/news\/235060\/Helmut-Marko-Strafe-hat-Verstappen-den-Sieg-gekostet.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Speedweek<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;His speed is right, as is his approach.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;When things get serious in qualifying, he loses time to Max, but the normal range is two or three tenths. Tsunoda goes his own way.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;A crash like the one with Gasly on the first lap of the Saudi Arabian GP can happen. According to our calculations, he could have finished sixth.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And that&#8217;s a huge step forward, because before him, our second car rarely came close to the top ten.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"XflqU2ABTdRkruEc7gd8Tg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2211126461\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'XflqU2ABTdRkruEc7gd8Tg',sig:'TIIxW9fddZzs70X6smG5OT9dZL4xk77WoL3Igz4p9Gw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2211126461',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Red Bull working to make life easier<\/h4>\n<p>Looking ahead to the upcoming Grand Prix in Miami and Imola, Red Bull aim to make things easier for Tsunoda.<\/p>\n<p>Primarily, the 24-year-old now has some experience to draw from and inform his approach with the RB21.<\/p>\n<p>This was not the case in Japan, when he was thrown into the deep-end with nothing more than <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/04\/tsunoda-rb21-more-different-than-expected-to-the-simulator\/\" target=\"_self\">a few simulator sessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull are also optimistic that they have a better understanding of how to put the RB21 in the best operating window.<\/p>\n<p>Combined with upgrades that are on the way, Tsunoda should have something better to work with moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>In some ways, despite Verstappen&#8217;s brilliance being enough to fight for victories, Tsunoda has joined Red Bull during one of its most turbulent periods.<\/p>\n<p>He will work to change the narrative, both regarding the performance gap between Red Bull&#8217;s drivers and the unfriendly and often demonised characteristics of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/03\/tsunoda-already-experimenting-with-rb21-set-up-ahead-of-japan\/\" target=\"_self\">the RB21<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last twelve months have been a rollercoaster of emotion for Yuki Tsunoda, more so away from the track than on it. His performances for the last few years have been solid, cementing himself as a driver worthy of being on the grid. However, as the 2025 season inched closer, there was no clear indication [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":33157,"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":[681,2452,2394],"class_list":["post-33156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-christian-horner","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33156","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=33156"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33187,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33156\/revisions\/33187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}