What Liam Lawson failed to achieve at Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda managed in the first free practice for the Grand Prix of Japan: finishing just behind Max Verstappen. The Japanese driver is looking forward to the weekend with a positive feeling now that his first encounter with the RB21 is behind him, although he believes there is still plenty of room for improvement.
In the first free practice on the Suzuka circuit, Yuki Tsunoda, spurred on by loud cheers from the stands, made his first laps in the RB21. The Japanese driver finished sixth, just a tenth behind teammate Max Verstappen. A performance that came as a surprise even to the newly minted Red Bull driver. “Yes, FP1 was better than expected. A good start for me,” he concludes after his first day on the track.
Simulator Work is Different
Tsunoda had already prepared for his transition to Racing Bulls’ ‘big brother’ with simulator work at the team’s technology campus in Milton Keynes. However, operating the RB21 in the real world proved to be clearly different from the simulator. “It’s a bit different from what I felt, to be honest. I knew anyway that it would always be a bit different in the real car, but it felt a bit trickier,” he says.
In the second free practice, Tsunoda did not set a lap time, a session that was marred by four red flags. “I think there is a lot of work to do, maybe we need to look more at the data in FP2, but so far it’s generally okay. I just need to build up my confidence more.”
Tsunoda admits that FP1 went better than FP2, but as he says: “We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 because of the number of red flags in the session, you could perhaps call the session a mess for everyone. But overall it’s okay and I’m glad I have confidence in the car,” he looks forward optimistically to the upcoming weekend.
