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Yuki Tsunoda has been performing extremely well this season with Red Bull's sister team, RB. The 24-year-old Japanese driver has emerged as a key asset for the team, with potential to move up to the main Red Bull team soon. Despite speculation about Tsunoda possibly getting a chance with the top team and Sergio Perez potentially losing his place, the situation remains unchanged. The Mexican still has the trust of the head of the Austrian team.
On the Beyond the Grid podcast, Tsunoda discussed the current season and revealed his next steps. He emphasized the importance of maintaining his current performance, continuing his progress, and demonstrating his skills to a wider audience.
“Keep doing what I am doing I guess. I started to show my value this year from the beginning of the season,” he said, as quoted by Crash.
The young driver did not hide the fact that many teams are interested in him, inquiring whether he would consider continuing his F1 career with them. Given that this was not the case earlier, the Japanese driver is proud of his progress. It is clear that he has several options available, but it remains unknown what Tsunoda's next career move will be.
“Also a couple of teams reached [out] to me and talked about different directions. I never had that things last year, especially first years. Just need to consistently keep delivering the results."
The 24-year-old Tsunoda is cautious about getting carried away, as this season is the first time he has truly demonstrated his full potential and consistency. When he first arrived in F1, Tsunoda wasn’t exceptional, but he has now reached a point where he has proven that the criticisms he received were unfounded. He has made huge progress as a driver and is determined to continue showing everyone that he is capable of achieving great things.
“So far I am able to achieve that but this is the first year I am showing my full potential, good results, consistently. I know that there’s a lot of things I can improve.
Still a lot of things to come from myself. Just have to show to every team principal or every team that I am a good driver and I can achieve a lot of things.”
Yuki Tsunoda has emphasized that his top priority is Red Bull. Since the beginning of his career, he has dreamed of being part of the main team, driving the fastest car, and helping them win the championship. Although he is aware that Red Bull is currently experiencing a mild crisis, Tsunoda is confident in the team's potential and what they can achieve in the future.
Tsunoda is ambitious and aims to be among the top 5 drivers in the coming seasons, expecting his team to meet those expectations. Given the significant progress that has already been made, the 24-year-old driver has high hopes for his future. For him, having a competitive car is crucial, and he is prepared to handle the rest to achieve his dream and help Red Bull return to the top.
This great driver stressed that while he remains open to the possibility of interest from other teams that might align with his goals or expectations, his primary focus is on his current responsibilities. He is dedicated to delivering strong results and impressing everyone with his performance.
Yuki Tsunoda and upgrades
Journalist Tom Clarkson asked Tsunoda about the impact of the upgrades introduced in Barcelona on the car’s handling, specifically whether they made it more unpredictable to drive. Tsunoda confirmed that the car has become more unpredictable. Sometimes it is not easy to get used to such things and it takes some time. This is obviously a big problem for the Japanese.
When Clarkson stressed that this trend was common across the grid, Tsunoda explained further. He mentioned that with the current generation of cars, the combination of downforce levels and ride height makes the wind effects more pronounced. This does not necessarily mean the car will go faster; rather, maintaining consistent load through the corners from entry to exit is crucial.
The 24-year-old points out that sacrificing one part implies balancing. It is important to know how to balance such things and get the most out of the whole story. RB engineers are doing an excellent job, and we have no doubt that they can go one step further and surprise the F1 public.
“Even if you had a massive load in entry, if you sacrifice that, for example, [in the] mid part of the corner load and goes to the entry load, you want it to balance each other. You can’t take one or the other."- Yuki Tsunoda said.
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