Seldom has it been extra necessary in Method 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 measurement, granted, however a consensus is forming among the many groups and drivers that ‘soiled air’ – the issue the present ground-effect guidelines had been imagined to mitigate – is again.
Qualifying has due to this fact turn into an important part of the weekend, adopted by the primary lap. And therein lies Yuki Tsunoda’s greatest 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 the next engine mode, however the knowledge appeared to counsel in any other case.
Thereafter the hole widened, although there have been extenuating circumstances such because the pink 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.
Yuki Tsunoda, Pink Bull Racing
Photograph by: Clive Mason/Getty Pictures
Tsunoda clearly had the tempo to succeed in 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 velocity on the entrance straight, and on the tightening radius of Flip 2. His first run, on used soft-compound Pirellis, hadn’t been ok to make the lower, rendering the second run extra important.
That condemned him to a end outdoors the highest 10 on a race day the place overtaking required you to be virtually 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: accumulate 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 cut up its technique to assault Verstappen’s lead. In future races it’d turn into much less averse to danger.
So meaning getting on high of the RB21, a automotive whose entrance and rear axles are repeatedly at loggerheads over who will attain the apex first. After qualifying in Suzuka, Tsunoda instructed a gust of wind might need been answerable for the snap at Flip 2 – there’s a get-out-of-jail-free card which can put on skinny ere lengthy – however admitted that he hadn’t nailed the tyre preparation in addition to he may and may.
The place Verstappen has had the measure of latest team-mates is his really feel for how one can load up the entrance wheels progressively sufficient to keep away from upsetting the RB21’s tetchy rear axle. It’s not a automotive which rewards a gung-ho type of driving, it doesn’t matter what Max’s detractors may consider him. Because the automotive isn’t going to vary within the quick time period, Tsunoda must study to make it work for him.
Apparently, each Pink Bull drivers evaluated larger downforce ranges throughout FP3 at Suzuka however Verstappen gravitated away from this whereas Tsunoda didn’t. The plain 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 beautiful 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 will probably be troublesome to maintain this weekend in Bahrain, the place the circuit has very totally 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 modifications, and to have large approaches into gradual and medium-speed corners, with main traction occasions to observe. There are only a few high-speed corners which reward peak downforce.
On paper, then, not a monitor on which the RB21 will flourish. Even Verstappen regarded ragged in testing.
All these gradual corners are a recipe for a scruffy lap in a automotive which snaps from understeer to oversteer. All this provides as much as a better problem for Tsunoda as a result of it’ll possible punish his lack of expertise within the RB21.
What he wants proper now could be consistency, and he’s not more likely to get it.
Learn Additionally:
On this article
Stuart Codling
Method 1
Yuki Tsunoda
Pink Bull Racing
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