Tsunoda: Sim test shows Red Bull F1 car suits me

Yuki Tsunoda says he must excel within the ultimate two races of the 2024 Components 1 season to “drive” Crimson Bull to contemplate him for a race seat – and {that a} simulator take a look at has indicated he could be fast within the staff’s automotive.

Tsunoda is considered one of a number of drivers within the combine to switch the embattled Sergio Perez, who at present sits eighth within the drivers’ standings when his team-mate gained the world championship final weekend.

Perez’s comparatively meagre factors haul – 152 to Max Verstappen’s 403 – has enabled each McLaren and Ferrari to overtake Crimson Bull within the constructors’ standings, which may value the staff tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in prize income.

Tsunoda is considered one of a number of candidates to switch him and, forward of a lately confirmed alternative to drive Crimson Bull’s 2024 automotive within the post-season Abu Dhabi take a look at, he has had a run within the staff’s simulator.

“I drove totally different tracks simply to get used to how the Crimson Bull automotive appears,” he mentioned. “It’s a reasonably quick automotive.

“Within the simulator no less than, it simply feels totally different [to the RB] and simply nice to drive, like the quantity of velocity you may carry into the nook. And it’s fairly sharp turning in contrast with our automotive.

“Nevertheless it simply feels nice. Usually, simulator work is extra like work, proper? However once I was driving [the Red Bull], I really feel I… there was a little bit of an satisfying feeling once I was driving.

“So I believe, no less than for therefore far, from what I skilled within the simulator, it’s a automotive that may go well with me. I believe really that automotive fits me properly. So, yeah, it’s fairly good.”

Since getting his break with Crimson Bull’s sister staff in 2021, Tsunoda has been persistently neglected for promotion to the seat alongside Verstappen. He has often voiced frustration at this, regardless of – in his phrases – “destroying” more than one team-mate.

The latest RB driver to be dropped after failing to outperform Tsunoda was Daniel Ricciardo, a grand prix winner. And but Ricciardo’s alternative, Liam Lawson, is thought to be simply as sturdy a candidate as Tsunoda if Perez had been to be solid out – and Crimson Bull bosses are understood to be wanting exterior the organisation’s younger driver pool, too.

Tsunoda is below no illusions about what the post-season take a look at represents, regardless that he has fought for it for therefore lengthy.

“All year long thus far, how they see me from the Crimson Bull [perspective], I really feel just like the take a look at is only a take a look at,” he mentioned. “The subsequent two races are undoubtedly extra vital.

“Hopefully, the take a look at will possibly add a bit extra, I assume, a greater impression, or higher image, precisely how I’m as a driver. However I believe the subsequent two races are undoubtedly extra vital to be in that blend, within the speaking about these seats.

“I don’t know what ought to I do greater than this, to be sincere, [to impress them]. However I’ll simply maintain pushing and these items I can management. And people issues, the Crimson Bull seat, they resolve it.”

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Group

Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool

Tsunoda’s RB staff is considered one of three battling over sixth place within the constructors’ championship and the Japanese driver has scored all however two of its 46 factors this season.

Whereas the ultimate placings have a considerable impact on staff revenues, the outfits which usually race for the scraps behind the highest 4 groups are tightly grouped.

Fifth-placed Aston Martin is one thing of an outlier on 86 factors, largely by the efforts of Fernando Alonso. Within the battle for sixth, Haas and RB have collected minor factors placings persistently however in sufficiently small numbers for uncommon race circumstances to have a major impact – Alpine is now a part of this group mainly by scoring an sudden double podium within the chaos of Brazil.

Tsunoda believes that on this context his velocity, reasonably than RB’s ultimate place within the standings, must be a deciding issue. He’s additionally properly conscious that behind-the-scenes politics within the wider Crimson Bull organisation is contributing to the uncertainty over who could change Perez if it had been to occur in any respect.

“If they are saying, OK, P6 is the duty that it’s important to [achieve] to be in Crimson Bull seat – it’s a reasonably tough factor to say, as a result of the staff championship is mixed between staff drivers, not simply particular person drivers,” he mentioned. “However I’ll do as a lot as can and hopefully, if I can rating P6 [for RB], that may give a greater motive to place me in a Crimson Bull seat.

“Perhaps they’re dealing with tough issues, various things that most likely I don’t know, within the background. So yeah, I’m simply going to drive them with my outcomes or my efficiency in order that [they say], ‘Oh, possibly we actually want Yuki to be in our seat, in any other case issues gained’t change.’

“So, yeah, I’ve simply acquired to drive them with my efficiency.”