Red Bull nobble Tsunoda’s Japanese qualifying – Formula One has arrived at one of its “classic” race tracks this weekend in Japan. Suzuka is known as a “drivers” circuit where the best have excelled and the rest find the weekend a bit of a slog.
To deliver the best lap time, confidence is crucial to maximise the car and for driver’s new to Suzuka the opening section is most daunting. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli who has never driven here before described his early runs back at base in the simulator.
“It’s even a bit scary in the sim when you do the fast chicanes [Esses]. I can only imagine the first lap in real life with the feeling of speed and everything, it’s going to feel crazy. Oh my god!,” the rookie said on Thursday.
Used soft tyres not quick enough
Much has been made of Red Bull’s ‘collapse’ in form this season, but team boss Christian Horner believes the root of the car’s current problems began in later iterations of their 2023 car, noting at the time Adrian Newey was involved with the design.
The RB21 is clearly problematic as Verstappen has explained and even the four years of Yuki Tsunoda’s experience in F1 saw him fail to advance beyond Q2 and will start the Grand Prix in P14. Meanwhile Max Verstappen was proving the RB21 is more competitive than the general paddock consensus believes.
In the first qualifying session, Max was just sixth and some quarter of a second slower than Piastri who topped the timesheets. Tsunoda looked promising as he tucked in behind his team mate less than three hundredths of a second slower than the leading Red Bull.
Yet come Q2, Tsunoda was nowhere. He finished the session plumb last but due to penalties for Carlos Sainz, the Japanese driver will start in P14. Yuki’s first run was on used softs and never going to be quick enough, but the team were saving brand new softs for later in the qualifying competition.
FIA emergency meeting to break manufacturers control
Tsunoda: visibly thicker rear wing
The vital second flying lap was almost finished before it began for Tsunoda. He had a snap of the rear end coming out of the chicane as he was setting up to cross the start line. Through the ever tightening Esses the Red Bull driver had another snap of oversteer and was forced to run off line losing all rhythm which is critical at this part of the circuit.
Yuki improved by just 0.154s on his first run on used softs and was a whole two tenths away from reaching the top ten shootout. Yet this was no Liam Lawson type performance and the team are partly responsible for sending Tsunoda out on used softs assuming he would make Q3.
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz reported: ”Yuki has a distinctly bigger rear wing angle on his car… we heard Christian Horner saying earlier in the weekend that Red Bull wish to give him a more predictable car thats not going to bite him in the behind. It might be a bit slower…. But that is a thick angle rear wing when compared to Verstappen’s.”
“That rear wing will slow Yuki Tsunoda down at [places in this circuit.” Yet the extra downforce didn’t affect Yuki’s speed in the first qualifying session with him ending around just a tenth slower than Verstappen. Further, with a 50/50 chance of rain for the race on Sunday, should the drivers need to run with wet tyres, Tsunoda’s extra downforce will be decisive.
Red Bull tyre choice ‘quesiotnable’
Red Bull’s decision to refuse Yuki new soft tyres at the start of Q2 was crucial. The balance between used a new softs is significant and Tsunoda would have to make significant adjustments to his driving between the two runs. It would clearly have been better had the Japanese driver run on two sets of new soft tyres, using the first run to identify where the time can be gained.
Yet having started the weekend under media scrutiny for their decision to drop Lawson and promote Tsunoda, Red Bull are already vindicated in their decision with Lawson finishing one place ahead of his Red Bull rival in Q2. It was the ‘what might have been’ that will irk Red Bull given Yuki’s potential was so much more than the result reveals.
Tsunoda described after the chequered flag he felt the tyre warm up wasn’t ideal on his second Q2 run which would explain the slide out of the chicane as he sought to set up the lap. This together with a “gust of wind” which hit the Red Bull at turn 2 are the reasons his final run was compromised.
“Q1 felt pretty good, I just missed the window I guess,” Tsunoda said. “The window this car can operate is very narrow, and the [tyre] warm-up probably most of the things have to be almost perfect – especially warm-up.
Yuki up to speed with RB21
“And especially Q2 run two, I wasn’t able to do the warm-up I wanted, as [I did in] previous runs. That makes a big difference in the end, so… something I learned, recognised in Q2 – but it was a bit too late and it’s a shame I wasn’t able to get it when it matters.”
Yuki was visibly disappointed with his underperformance stating he never expected such a poor result on Saturday afternoon. The newly promoted Red Bull driver made an interesting comment in his post session interviews feeling like he has now read “the whole textbook” on how this Red Bull works. A bold statement indeed.
Verstappen had previously run the Tsunoda high levels of downforce, but gravitated away to what by comparison is a skinny rear wing. Christian Horner claimed this was to give Yuki extra confidence as he learns the RB21 foibles, something Tsunoda confirmed he was now fairly comfortable with.
Tsunoda handles rear end stability like Verstappen
“I feel like this car is on the edge with the rear,” Tsunoda said. “At least for now I feel pretty OK with the stability, I would say, in terms of rear sliding. I’m feeling it! But I feel at the same time this kind of direction is the setup I have to drive to perform well in the car, so… at least I recognised it throughout FP1 and the practices, and just wasn’t enough in the end to put it all together I guess.”
“I felt last two days that if I’m able to sync with the car much more, I know I can extract much more consistently, which is important. At least I showed good pace in Q1 and feel like I have good confidence in the car.”
This is a result beyond Red Bull’s wildest dreams given the promise Yuki has shown in practice and Q1. And the extra downforce on his car with a potential wet Grand Prix on its way, may yet come to Tsunoda’s aid in spectacular fashion.
The rains currently forecast are set to arrive in the morning with the sun coming out around the time of lights out for the GP. Yet a shift in the weather patterns by an hour or so would make the start a wet one and in such conditions Tsunoda’s extra grip will be telling as he attempts to carve through the field to his first podium.
Alpine blame Doohan in Japan
Jack Doohan’s costly off at Suzuka as Alpine confirm driver error after high-speed crash – The second free practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix brought an unwelcome moment of drama for Alpine as rookie Jack Doohan suffered a high speed crash that temporarily halted the Suzuka race.
Although the Australian walked away unharmed, the incident left his car significantly damaged and raised questions about the misjudgement that led to the wreck. Alpine later confirmed that the crash was the result of a simple driving error – one that occurred at nearly 300 kilometres per hour.
There was a collective sigh of relief within the Alpine garage on Friday as team personnel awaited medical updates on their 22-year-old driver. The crash occurred early in the session when Doohan lost control of his car going into Suzuka’s notorious Turn One, a corner approached at tremendous speed…. READ MORE
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