{"id":3564,"date":"2025-04-06T10:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T10:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/3564\/"},"modified":"2025-04-06T10:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T10:25:09","slug":"the-interesting-yuki-tsunoda-trait-called-out-by-christian-horner-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/3564\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘interesting’ Yuki Tsunoda trait called out by Christian Horner in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being launched into a top-tier Formula 1 seat beside one of the greatest drivers of this generation is no easy task, and many talents like Liam Lawson, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly have crumbled when compared to Max Verstappen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But this weekend, Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s<\/a> sudden promotion to Red Bull has been nothing short of impressive \u2014 and Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner isn\u2019t afraid to admit it.<\/p>\n

Christian Horner offers nothing but praise for Yuki Tsunoda<\/p>\n

The build-up to one\u2019s home Grand Prix is naturally an intense time for any Formula 1 driver, but the pressure on Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s shoulders this year has been more intense than ever before.<\/p>\n

After competing at Racing Bulls for the first two races of the F1 2025 season, Tsunoda was suddenly promoted to Red Bull Racing when the team found its initial promotion, Liam Lawson, simply needed more time to get up to speed in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

That meant the Japanese driver found himself in a top-tier team ahead of the race at Suzuka, set to be heavily scrutinized for his performance \u2014 or, for a potential lack thereof.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Tsunoda has adapted well to the RB21, and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has had nothing but praise for the new recruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s done very well,\u201d he said of Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think to jump in at his home race under considerable pressure, what we\u2019ve seen in the three sessions so far, very mature.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got up to speed quickly. He\u2019s been on the pace and been giving very good feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo out of what we\u2019ve seen so far, yeah, he\u2019s doing exactly what we were hoping for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner has been impressed, but that isn\u2019t the only interesting thing he\u2019s noticed about Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

More analysis from the Japanese GP:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Winners and losers from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix qualifying<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Revealed: The secret design details uncovered at the Japanese GP<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to Christian Horner on the pre-qualifying Sky F1 show, Jacques Villeneuve asked about the common belief that Red Bull Racing manufactures its cars with Max Verstappen in mind, sometimes to the detriment of the team\u2019s other drivers, the former champion asked, \u201cIsn\u2019t it the case that you haven\u2019t found a driver that\u2019s capable of feeling the car, working with the engineers, and helping Max?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any organization, whoever is the dominant driver, you\u2019re going to feed off his information and feedback, and that drives the direction of development,\u201d Horner began.<\/p>\n

But he followed that first-driver defense with something compelling about Yuki Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, what\u2019s been interesting \u2014 Yuki has jumped in the car and said, \u2018Well, yeah, doesn\u2019t feel so much different. It\u2019s a bit sharper in the front than the Racing Bulls, but the rest of it feels pretty familiar,’\u201d Horner explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think hopefully his experience will help to continue to develop the car in, obviously, a set of regulations that are now\u2026 you\u2019re looking for minutiae to improve the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a follow-up, Horner was asked if Tsunoda is simply one of those drivers who thrives on a bigger team.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull boss didn\u2019t give a definitive answer, but he did have more praise for Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, he\u2019s a real character, and so he brings an energy into the meeting room,\u201d the team principal explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether he tries to be funny or not, he\u2019s just naturally very funny. That\u2019s a positive thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that he brings also a bunch of experience. I think he has now almost five years of experience behind him of driving Formula 1 cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s ready for this step now, and I think that only time will tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut so far, what we\u2019ve seen in the first couple days, he\u2019s done a decent job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner\u2019s chat with Sky Sports came before qualifying, where a pace disparity between teammates did become clear. As Max Verstappen added another pole position to his record, Tsunoda struggled to get out of Q2 and will line up 15th on the grid for the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Huge Yuki Tsunoda missed opportunity uncovered in Helmut Marko reveal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Being launched into a top-tier Formula 1 seat beside one of the greatest drivers of this generation is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,225,858,12,226,14,860],"class_list":{"0":"post-3564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-japanese-grand-prix","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-red-bull","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114290539458449779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}