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Yuki Tsunoda admitted it was “incredible” how Max Verstappen could “cope” with his setup choices after trying them on the Red Bull simulator.
Verstappen returned to winning ways at Suzuka with a faultless display from pole position.
On the other side of the garage, it was a difficult first race at Red Bull for Tsunoda, who failed to make it into Q3 and finished outside the top 10 in the grand prix.
After a solid start to the weekend in practice, Tsunoda deviated from Verstappen’s setup.
Tsunoda opted for more downforce, running a bigger rear wing on the car, which ultimately didn’t work out.
Speaking ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Tsunoda revealed that he had tried Verstappen’s full setup and “definitely felt the trickiness”
“In terms of how I got on in the car, it’s still OK, it’s too early stages to say I’m able to drive comfortably or not. But I think I’m able to cope with the car balance that most drivers struggle with so far,” Tsunoda said as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“Actually, we went to Max’s side rather than my setup, which I thought would be good. Surprisingly, I’m able to drive quite well so I’m happy with it so far. The direction we tried in the simulator, which was a bit different [from] China to focus on calming down the rear, and the setup we concluded in the end I felt was good.
“Also, Max felt pretty positive in the simulator, so in the end, also Max started with that direction which I quite liked as well already at Suzuka. I went for a more extreme side in that direction, and it just didn’t work out.
“It’s not like the setup that Max used in China; China was a bit more specific because it was more front-end limitation. But Max’s setup helps [the rear] and I think that setup probably in the simulator I feel definitely the trickiness. It’s incredible how he’s able to cope with that kind of setup.”
Verstappen demands Red Bull improvements
Despite not having the quickest car in F1 amid McLaren’s impressive start to the year, Verstappen sits just one point behind Lando Norris at the top of the drivers’ championship.
Verstappen extracted the maximum from the RB21 in search of his fifth consecutive F1 title.
Despite the close gap in the standings, Verstappen is cautious about his title chances without significant improvements to the car.
“No, we definitely need to improve to be able to fight for a title,” Verstappen said.
“It’s great that we are one point behind, but I think it’s more that we just maximised our weekends quite well so far. To really fight for a title, we need to find more performance.”
