What is Tsunoda’s next challenge after a sol...

Seldom has it been extra vital in Components 1 to grab the second. Whereas the primary three grands prix of the season have been at outlier venues which have comparatively little in frequent with most circuits on the calendar, all of them have been gained from pole place.

A small pattern dimension, granted, however a consensus is forming among the many groups and drivers that ‘dirty air’ – the problem the current ground-effect rules were supposed to mitigate – is back.

Qualifying has subsequently grow to be crucial part of the weekend, adopted by the primary lap. And therein lies Yuki Tsunoda’s largest problem.

There was a lot to unpick from Tsunoda’s first race weekend within the Pink Bull cockpit. Being only a tenth off team-mate Max Verstappen in FP1 appeared spectacular however that will have been the purpose: staff boss Christian Horner denied Yuki was operating a better engine mode, however the knowledge appeared to recommend in any other case.

Thereafter the hole widened, although there have been extenuating circumstances such because the crimson flags which prevented him from setting a consultant efficiency lap in FP2. Nonetheless, he appeared to be preventing the automotive lower than his predecessor, Liam Lawson – however he couldn’t string a fast lap collectively when it actually counted.

Tsunoda clearly had the tempo to achieve Q3, in contrast to Lawson or certainly late-period Sergio Perez, however he fluffed his strains in Q2 at two key moments the place the RB21’s snappiness caught him out: on the Suzuka chicane, costing him pace on the entrance straight, and on the tightening radius of Flip 2. His first run, on used soft-compound Pirellis, hadn’t been adequate to make the reduce, rendering the second run extra essential.

That condemned him to a end outdoors the highest 10 on a race day the place overtaking required you to be nearly a second a lap quicker than the automotive in entrance.

Tsunoda’s mandate at Pink Bull isn’t to beat and even match Verstappen, however to play the staff sport as quantity two: acquire factors, guarantee rivals rating fewer, and be a lurking presence to dissuade different groups from enjoying tactical video games. Had the circumstances of tyre efficiency, soiled air and site visitors performed out otherwise in Japan, McLaren may have break up its technique to assault Verstappen’s lead. In future races it would grow to be much less averse to danger.

So meaning getting on high of the RB21, a automotive whose entrance and rear axles are frequently at loggerheads over who will attain the apex first. After qualifying in Suzuka, Tsunoda steered a gust of wind might need been chargeable for the snap at Flip 2 – there’s a get-out-of-jail-free card which is able to put on skinny ere lengthy – however admitted that he hadn’t nailed the tyre preparation in addition to he may and will.

The place Verstappen has had the measure of latest team-mates is his really feel for learn how to load up the entrance wheels progressively sufficient to keep away from frightening the RB21’s tetchy rear axle. It’s not a automotive which rewards a gung-ho fashion of driving, it doesn’t matter what Max’s detractors would possibly consider him. For the reason that automotive isn’t going to alter within the quick time period, Tsunoda must be taught to make it work for him.

Apparently, each Pink Bull drivers evaluated increased downforce ranges throughout FP3 at Suzuka however Verstappen gravitated away from this whereas Tsunoda didn’t. The apparent conclusion is that Yuki felt extra assured with the automotive on this trim even when it didn’t yield the efficiency peaks Max subsequently present in his gorgeous pole lap.

Yuki Tsunoda, Pink Bull Racing

Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Pictures

What Tsunoda wants is extra time within the automotive, having found that its extra eccentric traits manifest themselves otherwise to how they did in Pink Bull’s simulator. However that momentum can be tough to maintain this weekend in Bahrain, the place the circuit has very completely different traits from these which hosted the primary three rounds.

Bahrain Worldwide Circuit dates from a interval the place Hermann Tilke, F1’s architect of alternative within the Bernie Ecclestone period, believed the way in which to engineer overtaking alternatives was to impress drivers into making errors by incorporating tricksy camber adjustments, and to have broad approaches into sluggish and medium-speed corners, with main traction occasions to comply with. There are only a few high-speed corners which reward peak downforce.

On paper, then, not a observe on which the RB21 will flourish. Even Verstappen seemed ragged in testing.

All these sluggish corners are a recipe for a scruffy lap in a automotive which snaps from understeer to oversteer. All this provides as much as a higher problem for Tsunoda as a result of it is going to seemingly punish his lack of expertise within the RB21.

What he wants proper now’s consistency, and he’s not more likely to get it.