Tsunoda struggles with 'really, really strange' car in qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda says he was getting strange feelings from his Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix from the first practice session, before dropping out as the slowest car in qualifying.

Red Bull promoted Tsunoda in place of Liam Lawson after just two races of this season but the Japanese driver has followed Lawson and Sergio Perez in struggling to produce consistent results. The latest low point came with a P20 qualifying result in Barcelona, and Tsunoda says something didn’t seem normal with his car from the first lap he did this weekend.

“Straight away, from FP1 first push, I said on the radio, 'There’s something I feel is not right,'” Tsunoda said. “It's just the level, it's not really matching my expectation, how I feel in the car, in terms of grip level overall.

“Obviously we tried to sort that issue throughout the week, but especially when you're limited by overall grip, whatever we change on the setup, it just gives a bit of a plaster feeling. It’s not able to cure the core limitation which I had, so it’s a big shame.

“I don't think it's the setup because, to be honest, we tried almost every setup. There's obviously some preference for bits here and there, but I think I'm still convinced that we're able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance.

“The car balance itself is not bad, and at least my confidence was also there. The lap in qualifying on both tires, especially the last push, was pretty good, so it doesn't really stack up with my results and with the pace I'm having.”

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Tsunoda says the drop-off is particularly surprising because he felt he was getting closer to teammate Max Verstappen in the earlier stages of the current triple-header.

“The last two grands prix, some sessions I was matching or even a bit faster than Max, and suddenly it drops like hell," he said. "Whatever I do, it relapses. Even like a long run was a good example – just whatever I do, nothing happens, and it feels like this car is eating the tires like hell, having massive degradation. It doesn't really stack up. I think the core limitation is still there, and I don't know what it is, and I can't really have any answer for that.”

Although team principal Christian Horner told F1 TV there is always pressure on F1 drivers following Tsunoda’s result, Tsunoda says he has been able to show his pace and potential at previous weekends and he believes Spain is an outlier.

“To be completely honest, this grand prix was really special for me, in my opinion," he said. "Let’s see, but I think I've done differently [to the other drivers] at least until [Monaco], and the team were on the same page with me, how I think the pace was really there.

“Monaco qualifying was a bit of a shame with the red flag and everything, but at least I've shown pace, and I heard multiple times from the teams that it's been a while [since] a second driver is able to match Max or be faster, so they were happy.

“But this grand prix, somehow, it just drops massively for whatever reason, and I'm not able to show my performance, which is [a] shame, and it's something that, for this grand prix ... I feel really, really strange.”