Red Bull impressed by 'unintimidated' Tsunoda alongside Verstappen

The beginnings of Yuki tsunoda in Red Bull have not been ideal, certainly. Since his promotion to the parent team to replace Liam Lawson, in April before Suzuka, the Japanese has scored only six points (including three in the Miami Sprint). At the same time, Max Verstappen earned 63 points and even won a victory in Japan. Nevertheless, despite a difficult start – which was to be expected in the second Red Bull seat – Yuki Tsunoda has already shown much more than his predecessor and, above all, he has shown some progress over the weekends. From an elimination in Q1 and a finish outside the points at Suzuka, he finished in Q3 and in the points in both races at Miami.

For now, Red Bull's top brass seems satisfied with Yuki Tsunoda's debut in Milton Keynes. That's what Paul Monaghan, the Austrian team's chief engineer, agrees. "He seems to be fitting in really well, actually. It's not the easiest situation to deal with, recognizes the British engineer. He came in, he's been frank in his comments, he's been courteous, he's been a good member of the team. He's been a little unlucky at times, lucky at others... He's finding his feet. He's not afraid to speak his mind, he says what he likes and what he doesn't like, which is good. He's part of the team, he's a good member and he'll be fine. He doesn't seem intimidated to be Max's teammate at the moment, which is really good. I'm impressed. He's got quite a temperament."

Red Bull did « "a lot of progress" with the RB21

Obviously, Yuki Tsunoda's arrival came in a rather unusual context at Red Bull. Between the premature dismissal of Liam Lawson, the rumors surrounding Max Verstappen and the inconsistent performances of the RB21, compared to the impressive McLaren, the Austrian team has had a turbulent start to the season. Since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Christian Horner's team seems to have regained a certain (but fragile) stability and is starting to find solutions with the RB21, which nevertheless remains a car extremely sharp to pilot.

"We are good in terms of understanding. We have made a lot of progress since the beginning [of the RB21], says Paul Monaghan. Obviously Japan was a highlight while Bahrain was a failure, but in terms of understanding, we surpassed ourselves for Jeddah and we were relatively better, we could have won. So we have to understand it, improve it step by step. It won't happen in the blink of an eye. It will improve gradually, and then we will see if we are faster than our opponents."

ALSO READ > Oliver Oakes replacing Christian Horner at Red Bull?