According to Laurent Mekies, Yuki Tsunoda had “very decent pace” in Singapore – but here’s why the Japanese driver still ended up without any points
After Yuki Tsunoda achieved his best result to date in the Red Bull cockpit with sixth place in Baku, the Japanese driver was unable to build on this result in the following race in Singapore. Instead, Tsunoda received the maximum penalty on Sunday.
Not only did the Japanese driver finish the race in twelfth place and thus without any points, he was also lapped by his teammate Max Verstappen. “It was definitely the worst start or the worst first lap of my life,” Tsunoda reported.
Qualifying on Saturday had already gone completely wrong for him, with him finishing in 15th place. However, because the two Williams drivers were subsequently disqualified, the Japanese driver was allowed to start from P13 on Sunday—and initially got off to a pretty good start.
On the way to the first corner, he was already alongside Liam Lawson, who had started one place ahead of him. But from then on, everything went wrong. “Everywhere I wanted to go, in every corner of the first lap, I was literally blocked by someone,” he said. “I just had no space. I lost so many positions in the first lap. It was definitely the worst start ever,” explains Tsunoda, who was gradually overtaken by Franco Colapinto, Lance Stroll, and Gabriel Bortoleto during the first lap.
Tsunoda annoyed: Pace was actually strong
As a result, he was only in 16th place at the end of the first lap, which virtually sealed his fate. “In my position, it was difficult to achieve anything,” said Tsunoda, referring to the Singapore circuit, where overtaking is traditionally difficult.
“So I tried to undercut the cars in front of me,” reported the Japanese driver, who started on soft tires and made his pit stop after just 14 laps. In fact, he managed to move up to P11 at one point, but in the end he finished twelfth without scoring any points.
“To be honest, the pace was one of the best I’ve had so far in my Red Bull career,” Tsunoda said, adding: “I think the most positive thing [about this weekend] was the long run. Until two races ago, I was almost hopeless.“
”But now I had really good pace,“ said Tsunoda, who, according to his own statement, was actually ”very competitive.” However, he was unable to show this because he was in a very poor starting position after a weak qualifying session and a botched start.
Tsunoda: Finally need to bring both together
“I think the key is to bring my pace over one lap and in the long run together,” he explains. Because while his long-run pace was better this time, his pace over one lap wasn’t right. Hence the poor starting position.
“Personally, I was happy with the work he did on Friday,” confirms Laurent Mekies. Tsunoda’s times may not have looked “spectacular,” but his long run was “at the right level,” according to the Red Bull team boss.
“Then Saturday was bad. We need to work with him to understand what went wrong. The first lap today was certainly shocking, but from that point on, I think he drove a very decent race,” he emphasized.
Tsunoda drove back to the front of the field “at a very decent pace.” Looking back, it was certainly Saturday that cost him points in Singapore. After all, Sunday was actually okay after the weak start.
But by then it was already too late to repair the final result.