Yuki Tsunoda: Red Bull’s new f1 driver begins the search to show the seat of non -poisoned place at home Japanese GP | F1 news

So now it is Yuki Tsunoda’s turn to enter what his new boss has regularly accepted is “The Most Hardy In Formula 1” – being a teammate to Max Verstappen.

After the troubled but extremely short stay of Liam Lawson, in the second place of Red Bull at the beginning of the new season, Tsunoda takes it from the third round this weekend for what, by chance or not, it happens to be his Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

For tsunoda, promotion is a chance to finally try what he has told everyone for some time – that he is ready to fight in the front of F1.

For Red Bull, for all the shocks and criticisms that have accompanied their brutal driver crossing so quickly in the campaign, the weekend Suzuka will give them a first chance to begin to find out if they have made the right call in the internal replacement of Sergio Perez on the second effort.

Why tsunoda thinks his chance is delayed

It was in July last year, as the fresh rumors began to revolve around the future of Perez amid a fresh fall in the form of Mexico, that Tsunoda first began to really express the disappointment of the public in what he thought was his lack of fair opportunities to raise Red Bull’s stairs.

At a time when the Japanese driver was in the middle of his fourth season in the Junior squad and had become clearly a more rounded and sustainable performer compared to his first days in the team, with a superiority for wild incidents on the road, errors and radio explosions that had reduced their frequency.

After continuously improved along with Pierre Gasly more experienced after initially prevailed by the Frenchman in his first year of 2021, Tsunoda had seen the new Dutch challenge NYCK de Vries in the space of 10 competitions in early 2023 and now was regularly overcoming the winner of the eight -time Daniel Ricciardo race.

Ricciardo had returned to Red Bull Fold last year after falling from McLaren as an effective security policy if the old team needs an experienced replacement for an increasingly volatile perez. But tsunoda was regularly overcoming and exceeding it.

“Of course, I am feeling ready, compared to the last three years, to fight against high teams, higher positions, even with max or whatever,” Tsunoda said at the Hungarian GP last year. “But after all, they are the ones who will decide and it’s not one thing I can control. So I’m just focusing on what I have to do.”

He also described the notion that at that point Red Bull could choose to promote inexperienced Lawson, who had appeared in five races alongside Tsunoda while complementing for a damaged Ricciardo before, but was currently their spare driver as “strange”.

Four months in November and with the lack of Perez’s sustainable form, making his position next to Versstappen, they seem more and more unworthy after the season collapsed, and with Lawson now his full -time teammate after Red Bull had called on Ricciardo’s return experiment, a more strong tsunoda at 2025.

“I always say that I definitely deserve that place. I can’t say more than that. It depends on them,” he said. “Whenever they continue to send me their driver to me to beat me, I just continue to ruin them. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

Thanks in part for the powers of the conviction of Honda supporters, Tsunoda would eventually take a chance to try Red Bull’s main car for the first time in the post -season session in Abu Dhabi in early December, though until then it was almost an open secret that Perez was leaving and Lawson was taking the car.

That is how it was how it played days later, which seemed to leave the Tsunoda road in the main team endlessly blocked – especially with Honda supporters departing for Aston Martin in late 2025.

But Lawson’s fighting rate in the first two weeks of the new season, and the rush that Red Bull operated in the second round in China to make a switch changed all.

What is there in Tsunoda trays for Suzuka?

The first thing Tsunoda will be inclined to catch as soon as possible on his first weekend is an RB21 car that no one in Red Bull, even Verstappen, seems to not accept is a challenging machine to soften at the moment.

Unlike Lawson, Tsunoda will not have the benefit of every season before the season to build from the first time the 24-year-old will run RB21 in real life will be when light goes green for the opening practice on Friday morning.

Whether debut for the old team at his home event proves a help or obstacle remains to be seen though, on the positive side, Suzuka is certainly a song in which Tsunoda needs absolutely no presentation.

In his three appearances in F1 there so far, he has not qualified lower than the 13th for Racing Bulls and ended the 10th in the Grand Prix last year for his first point at home.

Needless to say, Japan’s only current F1 star will also have great support at home.

In a seemingly more compatible car, if ultimately competitive, a car for what he would now drive, Tsunoda has also launched a new campaign in Racing Bulls, qualifying in the top 10 in all three qualifying sessions so far and scored the sixth place in Shanghai Sprint.

Indeed, his three -point load would have been almost higher, but for Bulls Racing’s strategy misused in two Grands Prix so far.

Tsunoda will have completed a suitable place and will have imitators at the Milton Keynes factory of Red Bull last week before flying to Japan, but will be on the right track in the three-hour practice sessions before Saturday’s qualification in Japan, when he will really discover what he is working with.

These sessions will all be about building confidence in the car and creating strong working practices with his new team and his new colleagues. The early moment that proved so elusive to find for Lawson for unfortunately.

What kind of results will Tsunoda be expected to achieve?

While last week’s events have underlined that time is undoubtedly essential in a ruthless Red Bull Driver program, one thing that team management will almost certainly not expect from Tsunoda immediately – if at any stage – is to match the rapid and relentless rhythm of the World Champion.

So what is the role of Red Bull’s second driver now, then?

Sky Sports F1 Commentator David Croft said: “Thinking for a long time, if Yuki takes a long term, he should reach a few tenths of a second in Verstappen’s qualification.

“He has to score stable points and be there to get the chances when they come to his way.

“Don’t think about beating verstappen yet, though I’m sure Yuki will like it a lot to do.

The pure talent of Verstappen and the constantly prevailing performances the four -time world champion is able to withdraw from Red Bull’s challenging car – which see him sitting in second place in Lando Norris to McLaren in the early 2025 driver championship – is why team christian Horner is now Russian The toughest gig in the grid.

“Yuki has to play the race not teammate,” Croft advises how to approach being a teammate against the Dutch.

“In the arrows, say you’re against Luke Little, you don’t play man, you play the board, from 501 down to a double conclusion as soon as you can and forget that you are playing.

“Yuki must forget who his teammate is, just go out and do the best everyone can and every session, at every qualifying session and every race.

“This can probably relieve the pressure he will now be put under him because there is a big difference between the pressure races for racing – despite doing very well and being too unlucky not to score the first two races – and races for Red Bull who are waiting for victories, Poles and championships.”

Thursday April 3

• 5 Morning: Press Conference of Drivers

Friday April 4

• 3 morning: Japanese GP practice one (session starts at 3.30am)
• 5.30 morning: Team Directors Press Conference
• 6.45AM: Japanese GP Practice Two (session starts at 7am)
• 8.15am: F1 display

Saturday 5 April

• 3.15AM: Japanese GP practice three (session starts at 3.30am)
• 6 morning: Japanese GP Qualification of Construction
• 7 Morning: Qualification of Japanese GP
• 9 Morning: TED Qualifying Notebook

Sunday April 6

• 4.30 Morning: Japanese GP Construction: Grand Prix Sunday
• 6 morning: Japanese Grand Prix
• 8 morning: Japanese reaction of GP: controlled flag
• 9 morning: TED notebook

Formula 1 goes to the iconic Suzuka circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix on April 4-6, Live at Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with now – without contract, cancel at any time