{"id":34720,"date":"2025-06-03T07:56:53","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T11:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=34720"},"modified":"2025-06-03T08:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T12:19:30","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-losing-2-3-tenths-due-to-old-red-bull-specification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/06\/03\/yuki-tsunoda-losing-2-3-tenths-due-to-old-red-bull-specification\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda losing &#8220;2-3 tenths&#8221; due to old Red Bull specification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/29\/yuki-tsunoda-explains-learning-process-in-rb21\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> first made the step up to Red Bull, he showed some encouraging signs of pace<\/p>\n<p>A poor strategy from Red Bull in Japan qualifying prevented him from making Q3 and competing for points &#8211; but his speed (in the context of having spent no time in the car) was solid.<\/p>\n<p>He scored points at the next race in Bahrain, finishing 9th in a race where Max Verstappen could only manage P6.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda made Q3 again in Jeddah, with a first-lap incident preventing him from adding to his point total.<\/p>\n<p>Still, these opening rounds were promising for both driver and team.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, things have become more difficult for the Japanese driver in recent weeks &#8211; but <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/26\/helmut-marko-praises-revelation-isack-hadjar\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Helmut Marko<\/a> insists there are mitigating circumstances.<\/p>\n<h2>Tsunoda still has Red Bull&#8217;s confidence, says Helmut Marko<\/h2>\n<p>Max Verstappen&#8217;s criticisms of the RB21 are well established, and were particularly prominent at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The car&#8217;s limitations prompted Red Bull to bring updates almost immediately, in a bid to try and reduce their deficit to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/30\/mclaren-downplay-impact-of-new-flexi-wing-restrictions\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"GsJtYfIBSQ9vjBmIqj-W7A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2217837784\" 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:'GsJtYfIBSQ9vjBmIqj-W7A',sig:'BrH1_UamFoAgNtLLgAT35XJ6HRgVJaAXaW5InuB6Fbg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2217837784',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>These upgrades have seen some success, with Verstappen finishing ahead of Piastri and Norris on pure performance at Imola.<\/p>\n<p>Although McLaren&#8217;s advantage is still notable, the Austrian team are close enough to put them under pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Tsunoda, his crash in Imola had far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from severely limiting his chances on Sunday (recovering from the pit-lane to finish P10), his latest upgrades were broken.<\/p>\n<p>Helmut Marko explains that, due to logistical reasons, Red Bull haven&#8217;t had any time to give Tsunoda <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/21\/red-bull-upgrades-set-to-ramp-up-pressure-on-mclaren\/\" target=\"_self\">the RB21&#8217;s latest specification<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Another aspect not to be overlooked, is that our cars are often a disaster on Friday,&#8221; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/it.motorsport.com\/f1\/news\/f1-marko-ammette-tsunoda-paga-tre-decimi-di-macchina-ma-non-insegua-max\/10729290\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it.motorsport<\/a> quotes him as saying.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And then we manage to fix them before qualifying &#8211; s<\/em><em>ome rather significant setup changes are necessary. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Max adapts immediately, while Yuki would need a few laps to gain confidence. But if you&#8217;re already in qualifying, there&#8217;s no time to adapt.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;It must be said that in Barcelona, he did not have the same technical specifications on his RB21. Due to his bad accident in Imola.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda&#8217;s crash, which came at the beginning of a triple-header, could not have come at a worse time.<\/p>\n<p>Helmut Marko reveals the 24-year-old has been losing critical performance whilst running old parts:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Only in terms of the car, Yuki was penalised by two or three tenths.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"GS5l9x3GR0FIWWHn_ZXpgA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2217223807\" 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:'GS5l9x3GR0FIWWHn_ZXpgA',sig:'rZgvUk9fVUtkFEP6ZYqtcifZXWOC3whe18vmV0jdRcw=',w:'594px',h:'401px',items:'2217223807',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Reasons for optimism<\/h4>\n<p>Of course, none of these mitigating factors can undo the results of the last few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda, who was unlucky to miss out on big points in Australia and China, is sitting far lower in the Championship than he would like.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish GP was also a reminder (in the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/06\/02\/hulkenberg-delivers-huge-points-in-spain-thanks-to-sauber-updates\/\" target=\"_self\">Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg<\/a>) that any midfield team can give the front-runners a headache in the right conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Still, this does not mean that Tsunoda&#8217;s results are representative of his abilities &#8211; or potential moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>Since the second half of 2022, when he began matching more experienced teammate Pierre Gasly, Tsunoda has delivered at a consistently high level.<\/p>\n<p>He has established himself as someone that can deliver strong performances consistently.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old&#8217;s recent performances at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/06\/01\/verstappen-red-bull-not-fast-enough-to-match-mclaren-in-spain\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull<\/a> certainly must be improved. With that said, even in difficult circumstances, he has shown flashes of genuine speed.<\/p>\n<p>Provided he receives the RB21&#8217;s new floor specification in Canada, Tsunoda should have a chance to rectify his form.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images (via Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Yuki Tsunoda first made the step up to Red Bull, he showed some encouraging signs of pace A poor strategy from Red Bull in Japan qualifying prevented him from making Q3 and competing for points &#8211; but his speed (in the context of having spent no time in the car) was solid. He scored [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":34721,"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":[2452,2542,2455,2394],"class_list":["post-34720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-hemlut-marko","tag-rb21","tag-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34720","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=34720"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34728,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34720\/revisions\/34728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}