Christian Horner gave his assessment on Yuki Tsunoda’s much-anticipated debut as a Red Bull driver at the F1 Japanese GP.
Tsunoda finally got the chance to get behind the wheel of the sister RB21 at his home race in Japan, following Liam Lawson’s swift demotion to Racing Bulls after just two weekends with Red Bull.
Mixed results for Red Bull at Japanese GP
Max Verstappen once again proved to be the standout performer, securing pole ahead of both McLaren drivers, and maintaining that position to take his first win of the season, reducing his gap to championship leader Lando Norris to just one point.
Tsunoda’s weekend, however, proved to be more challenging. After an encouraging FP1, where the Red Bull duo placed 5th and 6th on the timesheets, and steady progression through the remaining practice sessions and the first segment of qualifying, Tsunoda’s weekend began to unravel in Q2.
A mistake on his final run saw him qualify 15th (bumped up to 14th on the grid after Carlos Sainz’s penalty was applied), which put him at a disadvantage for the race. Reflecting after the session, Tsunoda attributed this to insufficient tyre prep.
The Japanese driver was in the mix at the start, overtaking Lawson, and later successfully undercut Pierre Gasly to move into 12th. However, there wasn’t much Tsunoda could ultimately do to make progress in a race where overtakes were few and far between. He spent the rest of the afternoon stuck behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.
Tsunoda believes his overtaking performance may have been hampered by the set-up choices made in preparation for a potentially wet race.
Horner praises Tsunoda on debut
Nevertheless, team boss Christian Horner remains optimistic that Tsunoda will be able to improve in the upcoming rounds in his print media session.
He praised Tsunoda for his feedback, noting that the Japanese driver is adapting well to his new team.
“I think that Yuki…he’s settled into the team,” Horner commented.
“He’s given very good feedback. I think, unfortunately for him…his FP1 was very strong. FP3 was fine. [In] Q1 he was only a tenth away from Max.
“[In] Q2, he made a mistake. He was 15kph quicker than he’s ever been into Turn 1. Had a moment and then you’re chasing the rest of the lap.”
Horner added that Tsunoda would have finished higher had he fared better on Saturday, particularly as overtaking was so limited at this year’s F1 Japanese GP.
“So, qualifying 14th dictated his race. He made an overtake and had an undercut on Pierre Gasly. And then spent the rest of the afternoon looking at Fernando Alonso’s rear wing. But in a race where there was… I can’t remember seeing any overtakes at all.
“I think, had he qualified higher, he would have finished, naturally, higher. Now he’s finding his feet in the team and we will see over the next few races that performance will step forward,” Horner concluded.
