Red Bull Racing CEO and Team Principal CEO Christian Horner has reflected on Yuki Tsunoda’s first race for the team at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Tsunoda entered the F1 Japanese Grand Prix weekend with confidence, publicly targeting a podium finish at his home track in his first race for Red Bull. After showing initial promise during practice and qualifying, his weekend quickly unravelled. After comfortably progressing into Q2, the Japanese driver made a mistake in the opening phase of his lap, relegating him to a P15 start.
In race featuring few overtakes thanks to low tyre degradation, he failed to make any progress up the order, finishing 12th. He later admitted he had “to do better” in Bahrain.
Speaking to media after the race, Christian Horner praised Tsunoda’s integration into the team at the F1 Japanese GP. However he admitted the Japanese driver had effectively sealed his lowly race fate on Saturday.
“I think that Yuki, he’s settled into the team. He’s given very good feedback,” said Horner.
“I think, unfortunately for him, his P1 was very strong. P3 was fine. Q1 he was only a tenth away from Max.
“Q2 he made a mistake. He was 15k’s quicker than he’s ever been into Turn 1. Had a moment and then you’re chasing the lap the rest of the way. So qualifying 14th dictated his race today.
“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,” he said.
Horner focused on the positives of Tsunoda’s F1 Japanese GP
Horner also praised his new driver’s feedback, and said he hoped Tsunoda would make a step up in the next few races.
“I think that had he qualified for higher he would have finished naturally higher. I think he’s given good feedback. And I think that now he’s finding his feet in the team. We’ll see over the next few races that performance will step up.”
A focus on the Barcelona Tech Directive
Horner was coy when asked if the new technical directive restricting front wing flexibility would have a positive impact on the team.
“I think there’s an unknown as to how it will affect the different cars. As you can see the operating window of these cars is very narrow. That front wing change is quite a significant one.
“It will be interesting to see how and who it affects. There’s no guarantees. We know areas of the car that we need to improve.
“The whole team is very focused on that. I think this championship is all going to be about maximising your opportunities in the first three races. We finished very close second in Melbourne.
“China sprint, we were competitive the first half. We faded in the second half of that race. China Grand Prix, we had a competitive stint on the hard tyre there to P4.
“There’s a lot of positives to take. We know if we can unlock some of the potential on this car it puts us right in the fight.“
Whether Red Bull could catch McLaren in Bahrain next weekend, Horner revealed his low expectations.
“McLaren in Bahrain will be very strong. It’s a track that should theoretically play to their strengths. They have the quickest car at the moment. I think we’re going to need to fight a bit to beat them.“
