What’s Tsunoda’s subsequent problem after a stable Purple Bull F1 debut at Suzuka?

Seldom has it been extra vital in Formulation 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 ‘soiled air’ – the issue the present ground-effect guidelines have been imagined to mitigate – is again.

Qualifying has due to this fact change into a very powerful 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 Purple Bull cockpit. Being only a tenth off team-mate Max Verstappen in FP1 appeared spectacular however that will have been the purpose: workforce boss Christian Horner denied Yuki was working a better engine mode, however the information appeared to counsel in any other case.

Thereafter the hole widened, although there have been extenuating circumstances such because the purple flags which prevented him from setting a consultant efficiency lap in FP2. Nonetheless, he appeared to be combating the automobile 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 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 adequate to make the minimize, rendering the second run extra crucial.

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 automobile in entrance.

Tsunoda’s mandate at Purple Bull isn’t to beat and even match Verstappen, however to play the workforce recreation 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 might have break up its technique to assault Verstappen’s lead. In future races it would change into much less averse to threat.

So which means getting on prime of the RB21, a automobile whose entrance and rear axles are commonly at loggerheads over who will attain the apex first. After qualifying in Suzuka, Tsunoda advised a gust of wind might need been liable 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 might and will.

The place Verstappen has had the measure of current team-mates is his really feel for the right way to load up the entrance wheels progressively sufficient to keep away from scary the RB21’s tetchy rear axle. It’s not a automobile which rewards a gung-ho type of driving, it doesn’t matter what Max’s detractors may consider him. For the reason that automobile isn’t going to vary within the quick time period, Tsunoda must study to make it work for him.

Curiously, each Purple Bull drivers evaluated larger 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 automobile on this trim even when it didn’t yield the efficiency peaks Max subsequently present in his gorgeous pole lap.

Yuki Tsunoda, Purple Bull Racing

Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photographs

What Tsunoda wants is extra time within the automobile, having found that its extra eccentric traits manifest themselves otherwise to how they did in Purple Bull’s simulator. However that momentum shall 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 selection 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 vast approaches into gradual 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 appeared ragged in testing.

All these gradual corners are a recipe for a scruffy lap in a automobile which snaps from understeer to oversteer. All this provides as much as a larger problem for Tsunoda as a result of it can 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.