Tsunoda: "Incredible" how Verstappen can cope with Red Bull F1 car set-up

Yuki Tsunoda says that he gravitated more towards Max Verstappen's set-up in his first Formula 1 weekend with Red Bull in Japan, and reckoned it was "incredible" how the four-time world champion could work with it.

After his debut with the RB21, Tsunoda noted that there were clear differences between the car on track and in the simulator, but had otherwise looked at home with the team before missing the tyre warm-up window in Q2. This led to him only qualifying 15th - lining up 14th when Carlos Sainz took a penalty.

Tsunoda explained that, because of his limited experience and running with the car thanks to a series of interrupted practice sessions, he ended up tweaking his set-up to move more towards how Verstappen likes his car - adding that he was generally happy to make the switch.

The Japanese driver revealed that he tried Verstappen's full set-up in the simulator and was impressed at how the four-time champion could hang on to it, but stated that the team knew it wasn't the way to develop the car.

"In terms of how I got on in the car, it's still OK, it's too early stages to say I'm able to drive comfortably or not. But I think I'm able to cope with the car balance that most drivers struggle with so far," Tsunoda explained.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Jayce Illman - Getty Images

"Actually, we went to Max's side rather than my set-up, which I thought would be good. Surprisingly, I'm able to drive quite well so I'm happy with it so far.

"The direction we tried in the simulator, which was a bit different [from] China to focus on calming down the rear, and the set-up we concluded in the end I felt was good.

"Also, Max felt pretty positive in the simulator, so in the end, also Max started with that direction which I quite liked as well already at Suzuka. I went for a more extreme side in that direction and it just didn't work out.

"It's not like the set-up that Max used in China; China was a bit more specific because it was more front-end limitation. But Max's set-up helps [the rear] and I think that set-up probably in the simulator I feel definitely the trickiness.

"It's incredible how he's able to cope with that kind of set-up."

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Andrej Isakovic - AFP - Getty Images

Tsunoda also explained that the other difference between Red Bull and Racing Bulls was in how it coaches the drivers for preparing the tyres for a qualifying lap.

He reckoned that his former team was more willing to feed back to the drivers with information on what to do in a warm-up lap, while Red Bull is more willing to put the onus on the driver.

"It's a different approach," said Tsunoda. "I feel like VCARB will tell us how to do it, and Red Bull is more like they can adjust it from the out lap. It's quite a different approach there and I wouldn't say which is better or not, to be honest.

"There are a couple of things that feel like VCARB has an easier approach for the driver, more than Red Bull. But I think Max has had that approach for nine years, so he's just able to naturally do it.

"I probably have a little bit of digging to work out what kind of approach I should take, and it's an ongoing process, how we can do better as a team to make it a little bit easier."