{"id":36745,"date":"2025-08-13T12:16:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36745"},"modified":"2025-08-13T12:29:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:29:51","slug":"gasly-reveals-discussions-with-tsunoda-about-red-bull-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/13\/gasly-reveals-discussions-with-tsunoda-about-red-bull-difficulties\/","title":{"rendered":"Gasly reveals discussions with Tsunoda about Red Bull difficulties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pierre Gasly is no stranger to the difficulties of adapting to life at Red Bull. The Frenchman lasted only half a season before being replaced at the Milton Keynes team.<\/p>\n<p>He spent the next few years at VCARB, with his final two years at Faenza being alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/10\/where-yuki-tsunoda-stands-in-red-bulls-2026-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After almost immediately backtracking on Lawson&#8217;s promotion, Red Bull put Tsunoda into arguably the toughest seat in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>For several reasons, the 25-year-old has been frustrated by his results at Milton Keynes. With that said, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/05\/pierre-gasly-warns-the-rest-of-2025-going-to-be-painful-for-alpine\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Gasly<\/a> argues there are many variables to consider behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<h2>Gasly defends Tsunoda amidst Red Bull struggles<\/h2>\n<p>In many ways, Yuki Tsunoda was the logical option to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/22\/sergio-perez-linked-with-alpine-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Sergio Perez<\/a> when last season concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese driver outperformed three different teammates (De Vries, Ricciardo and Lawson), during his final stint at VCARB.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"tO6iF2gZQthb64zOQ6KtpA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2208779227\" 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:'tO6iF2gZQthb64zOQ6KtpA',sig:'OnX0VMv6PE0Hgqt4Ca-BJSVg4D0lhc2SesoR4yb63V0=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2208779227',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His success against these teammates, for various reasons, was generally seen as a surprise.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the consensus on Tsunoda&#8217;s abilities prior to 2023 &#8211; when Gasly left VCARB for Alpine &#8211; did not do him justice.<\/p>\n<p>Gasly, who is highly regarded throughout the paddock, was comfortably faster than Tsunoda in his rookie season in 2021. However, Tsunoda was considerably closer in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The #22 car was regularly on the same pace as Gasly, arguably even faster in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n<p>This is something Ricciardo even mentioned during his final F1 stint, cautioning people not to overlook his new teammate&#8217;s track record.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping this in mind, Gasly knows better than most of what Tsunoda is capable of.<\/p>\n<p>It can hardly be a surprise, then, to see the Frenchman defending his former teammate:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Talking with Yuki, I know some stuff that can&#8217;t be said,&#8221;<\/em> he told <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/pierre-gasly-on-yuki-tsunoda-struggles-at-red-bull-i-know-some-stuff-that-cant-be-said\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">racingnews365<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And it&#8217;s not easy. It&#8217;s not easy to be in this situation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;You try to do what&#8217;s best for the team, and sometimes you get given something to make it work.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And sometimes you&#8217;re in a situation where, for different reasons, it can&#8217;t quite work the way you like.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;So, knowing from experience, I just try to chat as a friend and just advise on stuff that may help him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;And I think ultimately, it&#8217;s up to him and the team to make it work and do the right things for it to work.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ty4CxdN0TnZIdN7lOOdXJQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2206458794\" 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:'ty4CxdN0TnZIdN7lOOdXJQ',sig:'LTUL4U8n4rcnqrNDq6TSyYyzlfBggSugTFaUq5JjmIc=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2206458794',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Tsunoda still has time<\/h4>\n<p>As detailed previously on LWOS, a combination of factors have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/04\/tsunoda-rb21-more-different-than-expected-to-the-simulator\/\" target=\"_self\">complicated Yuki Tsunoda&#8217;s Red Bull promotion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The most obvious factor, and arguably the most consequential, is his lack of pre-season testing in the RB21.<\/p>\n<p>Being put into the car without any real preparation is never ideal, but this problem has been compounded by the inaccuracies of Red Bull&#8217;s simulator.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Tsunoda&#8217;s crash in Imola undid some of his initial momentum and &#8211; more importantly &#8211; meant he spent several weekends with an old floor specification.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of being on old parts was made clear in Belgium, when the 25-year-old qualified in 7th upon receiving the update.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull, of course, are aware of these mitigating factors. Team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/03\/red-bull-suffer-from-understeer-and-then-oversteer-in-hungary\/\" target=\"_self\">Laurent Mekies<\/a> in particular should be relatively forgiving about the difficulties of the RB21.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, Tsunoda must still ensure his results after the summer break &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/02\/red-bull-search-for-answers-after-disaster-hungary-friday-practice\/\" target=\"_self\">even if Red Bull are less competitive<\/a> &#8211; are significantly better than those of previous months.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images (via Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pierre Gasly is no stranger to the difficulties of adapting to life at Red Bull. The Frenchman lasted only half a season before being replaced at the Milton Keynes team. He spent the next few years at VCARB, with his final two years at Faenza being alongside Yuki Tsunoda. After almost immediately backtracking on Lawson&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36751,"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":[1567,2452,111,78,1581],"class_list":["post-36745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-alpine","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-pierre-gasly","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36745","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=36745"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36754,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36745\/revisions\/36754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}