Yuki Tsunoda was at a loss to explain his lack of pace in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix after lapping 0.6 seconds slower than Max Verstappen.
In his seventh weekend since joining the team as a replacement for Liam Lawson, Tsunoda is still struggling to get close to his team mate’s lap times. He ended Friday practice 13th, 10 places behind the other Red Bull.
He admitted it had been a “tricky” opening day for him at the Circuit de Catalunya. He said his car felt good but the gap between him and Verstappen remained wide.
“In terms of first day compared to other days [at] other grands prix, it felt pretty smooth for myself,” he said. “I think I made progress, obviously, from FP1 to FP2.
“I just don’t have any idea why I am slow. To be honest the lap was pretty good as well considering [it’s] FP2 and obviously it’s not fully 100%. But it’s obviously not the gap that I’m expecting, at least.
“It’s hard to even tell like what kind of exact limitation I have. In terms of balance, it’s okay. So we have to see what we can improve but currently [I’m] struggling.”
During the session Tsunoda told his race engineer Richard Wood “the amount of sliding I have is not normal.” He said his car was losing grip at both the front and rear.
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Tsunoda said he would have understood being so far behind if there was an obvious explanation for the loss of time. “Hopefully we can find something, otherwise it’s really tough, honestly,” he said.
“It’s not like I had a massive mistake and I’m being behind compared to competitors quite a lot [because of that]. If I had a mistake, with that result, I’m happy, actually. But it’s not like that.
“Probably it will be a longer night than usual, but obviously there’s a curfew and everything. I’ll try my best to find the solution, but yeah currently it’s not really clear.”
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