‘Completely lost’ Tsunoda told to admit he’s ‘not good enough’
Yuki Tsunoda has yet to learn his Red Bull fate
After the brief hurrah of his P6 in Baku was followed by another point-less showing in Singapore, Yuki Tsunoda has been told that it is time to acknowledge that he’s just “not good enough”.
After 14 races struggling in the midfield at best since joining Red Bull when he replaced Liam Lawson at the Japanese Grand Prix, Tsunoda appeared to have a breakthrough at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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Qualifying sixth while his teammate Max Verstappen was on pole, Tsunoda held his position to record his best-ever result as a Red Bull Racing driver.
His team principal Laurent Mekies was full of praise, saying: “I think it’s his best race with us this year. I think he was strong in qualifying; he was very strong in the race.
“He was actually there on merit and, and Lando stayed behind him and didn’t put much pressure on him. So it’s his best, not only result, but also race pace with us.”
He hinted that it boded well for Tsunoda’s future amid rumours that Isack Hadjar could replace him next season with Tsunoda potentially fighting to stay on the grid with Racing Bulls.
“It was really the one thing we wanted that probably was the most important for us to get that sort of clean sample,” said Mekies. “And I think he was listening, and it’s good.”
But two weeks later there was again talk of limitations and struggles, and it came from Tsunoda.
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While Verstappen battled for pole position, Tsunoda was eliminated from qualifying at the second hurdle where he was down in 13th place, the slowest driver in Red Bull’s two teams.
“I couldn’t understand what the limitation is. Just generally lack of grip overall and that’s the main thing,” lamented Tsunoda.
“It’s hard to say. Just unlucky [being] off grip overall and just struggled to bring it up.”
He made up one place in Sunday’s 62-lap and suffered the embarrassment of being lapped by his teammate Verstappen.
Tsunoda had a torrid opening lap as he was not able to find a way around his rivals and actually lost several positions. But while he did make gains later, it wasn’t enough to add to his 20 points in the Drivers’ standings.
“It definitely was the worst start or the first lap ever in my life. I can’t still believe what happened in the first lap,” he said.
“It was definitely the worst start ever. I don’t know what I should have done there. I’m sure there’s something I could have done better.
“That for sure made my life very hard afterwards. To be honest, the pace was one of the best I’ve had in my Red Bull career so far. It’s a shame what I had there.”
But while Tsunoda felt it was his best pace, former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde reckons if Tsunodao believes that, that’s a huge concern.
“Ouch! What a painful interview,” he said on Viaplay. “He’s completely lost.
“Firstly, he was lapped by his teammate.
“Secondly, he can say his pace was very good and that he was fast, but he was really very slow. Thirdly, that opening lap was a disaster.”
The Dutchman, who raced for Caterham in F1 in 2013, believes the time has come for Tsunoda to take a long, hard look in the mirrow.
“You can see it in his interview. He doesn’t know what to say or where to look. He’s completely lost. He has no one to blame. He can only look in the mirror and say he’s not good enough.”
Tsunoda is being tipped to lose his Red Bull seat to Hadjar with reports claiming he may yet stay on the grid with Racing Bulls or he’ll join the Honda-powered Aston Martin team as a reserve driver.
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