Yuki Tsunoda explains key challenges in driving Red Bull’s much-maligned F1 car
What's the key to Yuki Tsunoda's rapid acclimatisation to the RB21?
Yuki Tsunoda has explained how he is adapting to Red Bull’s 2025 Formula 1 challenger, with a change in approach helping him unlock more lap time.
Tsunoda was thrust into a Red Bull seat at his home race in Japan in March without any prior testing with the team.
Red Bull’s struggles in 2025 are well documented, with both his predecessor Liam Lawson and Max Verstappen explaining on several occasions that the RB21 is a difficult car to drive.
Even Tsunoda admitted that the RB21 was “trickier” than he had originally anticipated after his first run in practice at Suzuka, but after logging more mileage he has offered a more balanced verdict on the car.
While he still believes it is “not easy” to drive, he suggested a major part of the challenge comes from transitioning to a car that is totally different to what he was used to during his four years at AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls.
“I’ll say it’s not complicated [to drive the Red Bull] in the sense of trying to drive around, but it’s still not easy, for sure,” he explained.
“In VCARB the car was a bit more lenient and forgiving with any directions. The Red Bull has a sharper, narrower window where it performs.
“It’s not easier than VCARB, but better than I thought initially when I jumped into Red Bull.
“This is the first time after joining Formula 1 [that I’m in a different car]. For four years I drove the same car and knew how to set it up and where the limit was. I just naturally didn’t have to think about it before.”
Tsunoda has made a significant change in his approach at Red Bull after discovering that the RB21 can paradoxically be quicker when it’s not well-balanced.
He is now learning to drive the car with understeer and oversteer, which in turn is helping him go faster on track.
“The set-up I tried a couple of times in Suzuka that I thought would be good, just didn’t work out - even when in the car, the balance felt good, the lap time didn’t reflect it,” he said.
“So that needs to come from experience, and sometimes you just have to accept the difficulties of the car. Like, if it feels like a lot of understeer or oversteer, but lap time is good, probably stick to that direction. It’s a different approach. I’m learning as much as possible.
“The team is helping a lot with those directions. I just have to get used to it. But the limit, I just still don’t know yet exactly.
“Like in Q3 in Saudi, I pushed a bit more and had a massive snap, which I didn’t expect. It will get there. I just try to keep my head down and slowly build up.”
“Even with the general environment [within the team], me and my engineer – he’s Scottish, so a mix of Scottish English and my Japanese English – it’s a bit interesting. Those things just need more time to blend in.”
Tsunoda progressed into Q3 in Bahrain and then logged his first points with the team with an eighth-place finish.
Another top 10 result seemed likely in Saudi Arabia after he qualified eighth, but an accident on the opening lap with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly forced him into an early retirement.
While the 24-year-old’s early results have been objectively better than Lawson's, the Japanese driver still feels there is a lot of room for improvement.
He feels qualifying is one area where he needs to make the biggest jump, having trailed polesitter Verstappen by nine tenths of a second in Jeddah.
“It just needs more time to get used to it fully,” he said ahead of the Miami GP. “I’m happy with the progress so far.
“The confidence is quite there, but just when you push 100% on the limit in qualifying, that’s where you kind of face it for the first time, right? Because you don’t push 100% until then.
“The starting point is always slightly below where I want to be or where I used to start with in FP1, so it takes a bit more time to build up on new tracks.
“In qualifying, most of the time so far I experience new behaviour from the car and I’m not always able to cope with it. I wouldn’t say the car is super difficult – it just needs more time to define where the limit is.”
