Yuki Tsunoda faces an uphill battle as he prepares to make his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix, targeting a podium despite the unpredictable nature of the RB21.
His promotion, confirmed by Red Bull on Thursday, comes after years of uncertainty about whether he would ever get the call-up.
Now, with just days to adapt to a notoriously difficult car, Tsunoda must prove he belongs in the top team.
Tsunoda on the “unreal” opportunity
Speaking publicly for the first time since the announcement at a Honda event in Aoyama, Tsunoda described the switch as “unreal” but remains ambitious.
“To be honest, I never expected to be racing for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix,” he admitted, according to motorsport.com.
“This is the final year of Red Bull and Honda’s partnership, so getting to race in Suzuka as a Red Bull Racing driver feels like fate. Everything has fallen into place in just the right way for me to be standing here today.”
Despite his excitement, the 24-year-old is well aware of the challenge ahead. The RB21 is an enigma, even to experienced drivers, and Tsunoda will have just a handful of practice sessions to tame it before qualifying. His goal is a podium, but he knows it will take everything he has.
“I don’t want to raise expectations too much, but for this Japanese Grand Prix, I want to finish on the podium,” he said. “That said, I know it won’t be easy right from the start. My priority is to first understand the car, how it behaves compared to the VCARB. If I can naturally enjoy driving it as I get familiar with it in FP1, then the results will follow. And if that leads to a podium finish, that would be incredible.”
The unpredictable car the RB21 is
With no experience in the RB21, Tsunoda’s debut at Suzuka could prove a daunting task. Red Bull’s second seat has a history of breaking drivers, and the team has not hesitated to shuffle its lineup when expectations are not met. But Tsunoda, known for his fiery personality, is embracing the moment.
“When I first got the call, I thought: ‘Wow, this is going to be interesting,'” Tsunoda said. “More than anything, I’m excited about the challenge ahead. There aren’t many moments in life where you face this kind of extreme pressure and an opportunity as big as this, so I can only imagine that it’s going to be an incredibly thrilling race.”
Tsunoda has already spent time in the simulator, offering some insight into how the RB21 behaves—but virtual laps can only tell so much.
“I spent about two days in the simulator. From that experience, I didn’t find the car to be that challenging to drive,” he explained. “I definitely got the impression that the front-end is very responsive, as people often say. But if you ask whether it felt tricky to handle, I wouldn’t say it gave me a particularly strange feeling, at least in the simulator.”
The set-up question
Tsunoda is also well aware that adapting to Verstappen’s preferred setup may not be straightforward.
“Of course, how I want to set up the car is probably different from Max. I want to develop my own car set-up, get a good understanding of it, and gradually get up to speed from FP1.”
Tsunoda knows that if he can pull off a strong result, especially at his home race, it will raise serious questions about why Red Bull took so long to promote him. Whether he can harness the unpredictable RB21 and prove himself in the ultimate pressure cooker remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: if he does, Red Bull will have no choice but to acknowledge the talent they nearly overlooked.
