Tsunoda: I'm trying to understand how RB21 works

Tsunoda replaced Liam Lawson at Red Bull Racing from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards, and while he has managed to break out of Q1 from his first qualifying in the RB21, the time gap to Max Verstappen remained considerable and was even one second after qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Despite that, Tsunoda has been praised for the job he has been doing so far by the team and some pundits, which is somehow strange, and while he has been an improvement compared to Lawson, he has more experience than the Kiwi in the form of 76 extra grands prix under his belt.

However, the Japanese driver insists his confidence in the car is increasing as Red Bull Racing have arranged an intense program to get him up to speed, including sim sessions and a private test of the title-winning RB19 at Silverstone last week.

"In terms of confidence, I'm happy, considering I've only done a few races and it's going to grow," Tsunoda said, commenting on his Red Bull foray so far.

"For now I'm trying to understand how this car works, how to put it in the window it wants, from the point of view of tyre warm-up and setup.

"I don't think I understand even half of it yet," he admitted. "These things are the key I'm trying to work on to understand as soon as possible."

The 24-year-old went on explaining what he struggles with compared to Verstappen. He added: "Max senses more things in the car than I do, like, for example, the tyre temperature when you leave the garage.

"When the temperatures drop from Q1 to Q3, Max adapts. When the temperature drops, he can adapt the warm-up lap; he knows how to warm up the tyres in each corner, maybe increase the pace, or things like that.

"I didn't feel this. I couldn't feel what I felt with the Racing Bulls. I still can't feel it with this car, maybe simply because I'm not driving completely relaxed," Tsunoda reckoned, pointing out that his relationship with his race engineer is yet to be perfect, which has an impact on his performance.

He went on: "I think those details are really important with these regulations, which make the tyres very sensitive—and a tenth, or even a few milliseconds in each corner, makes a big difference.

"Details that are built not only with greater confidence in the car but also in the relationship with their engineer, in fact one of the strengths of the Verstappen-Lambiase pairing."

Tsunoda has only scored points with Red Bull on one occasion, when he finished ninth at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

(Quotes from Motorsport.com)