PALMER: Why Tsunoda’s first weekend with Red Bull was a lot more impressive than his final result suggested

I was impressed with Yuki Tsunoda’s first weekend with Red Bull, even if the headline results don’t show a marked improvement for the team’s second seat in Japan.

What was a promising debut weekend for the local driver came completely undone in Q2 as he missed his lap on new soft tyres, leaving him with his biggest comparable deficit of the weekend to Verstappen at half a second – enough to see him knocked out in 15th, with his team mate comfortably through.

The tight field in 2025 can make small deficits seem big, particularly in the first two parts of qualifying, with tiny margins potentially costing or gaining multiple positions difference on the grid. And for Tsunoda, there were some circumstances that played their part in him failing to make the top 10.

Having never driven the car before FP1 in Japan, Yuki quickly got down to a sensible pace throughout practice, lapping around a tenth or two away from Verstappen on average throughout the sessions until Q2.

We know the Red Bull car isn’t easy to drive, and yet Tsunoda seemed to settle into it very quickly on Friday, looking more comfortable than Liam Lawson and even Sergio Perez did for much of the end of last year.

The final results don’t look great as Tsunoda started his new tyre Q2 lap with undercooked rear tyre temps and he scrabbled around with oversteer and a lack of traction at the start of the lap, costing him three-tenths in just a couple of corners.

Ultimately, a two-tenth improvement would have seen him through into Q3, but once you start a flying lap on the back foot like that it becomes easy to overdrive and difficult to regain the lap time.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 04: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan driving the (22) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 in the — Tsunoda looked great in practice, but stumbled in qualifying

This one issue on one lap effectively ruined his race weekend and the dream of getting some home points on debut with Red Bull, as overtaking proved incredibly difficult on Sunday.

An early pass on Liam Lawson and a strategic undercut of Pierre Gasly was all that could be done as he washed in outside of the points on Sunday, stuck frustratingly behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin for the remainder of the race.

On one hand it was a tough return for Tsunoda. He looked like he should have been a solid Q3 runner from most of his driving through the weekend (especially in practice) and Red Bull will be buoyed by this.

On the other, when you have performance it can be pretty important to get a score on the board, because you can never take results for granted, particularly in the tricky Red Bull second seat. The confidence gained from a points finish he could have had would have been huge – both for him and the team.

Tsunoda left disappointed after ’not the result I wanted’ in home Grand Prix

The fact that Japan was also Yuki’s home race may have added a little more pressure to the pot, but it looked like he generally handled himself well over the weekend, on what was actually a Grand Prix with little to lose for him.

Lawson had done poorly enough in his first two races that Tsunoda was bound to be an improvement, so anything back towards the sharp end was going to be major progress for Red Bull. Even a Q2 exit was an improvement on where Lawson was during his fleeting few qualifying sessions with the team.

Because he didn’t know the car and the expectations were low, Yuki got a bit of a free pass, and the fact that he actually looked quick for a lot of practice was a bonus. Moving forward to Bahrain though, I think the pressure could actually rise for him, but it’s a nice place to be heading to just a week after his first taste of the RB21.

The Bahrain circuit is one of the least punishing on the calendar. It’s one that the drivers probably know the best now, thanks to the pre-season testing mileage there – and they all drove it just a few weeks ago. The car will still be fairly new to Yuki, but on a track he’s thrived at in the past (he finished P9 here on debut back in 2021), this could be a chance to lean on it from the start and find the limits without the risk of crashing that you have at Suzuka.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 05: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing takes a selfie with the — Tsunoda's first race for Red Bull was in front of his home fans at Suzuka

Red Bull have said he will be in the car for the remainder of the year, and that seems a sensible approach for the team to instil some confidence in a driver who has been overlooked for a while, in a seat that has long been a problem for the team.

The reality is that the pressure is never off though in Formula 1. Yuki is no longer an inexperienced driver. He’s cut his cloth well in the midfield, but if he’s to stake a claim to be a driver worthy of having a place on the grid in the future, be it at Red Bull or elsewhere, then this is his golden opportunity, one he’s been waiting for for years.

The first weekend showed promise, but now it’s time for Yuki to start to show what he can do. He’s historically always been strong in fast corners, of which there are plenty in Suzuka and none in Bahrain, but he’s also always been good on the brakes as well and that could help him this weekend, if he can find a direction with the car that works, and a confidence to attack as if he’s been in it for a while.

I certainly think Red Bull’s decision to switch drivers was harsh, but justified by the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, and now is a chance for Yuki to start to prove them right with results.