Yuki Tsunoda has been enduring a torrid time at Crimson Bull since making the bounce from Racing Bulls earlier within the 2025 System 1 season. However regardless of one other lacklustre end result on the Hungarian Grand Prix, he stated there have been positives to take from the weekend.
Tsunoda’s marketing campaign in Budapest by no means actually bought off the bottom, with the Japanese driver struggling for tempo in apply earlier than qualifying sixteenth for the grand prix. Within the race, unable to maneuver by way of the pack on the tight Hungaroring, he could not present his potential and completed the race in seventeenth.
However, for as soon as, there wasn’t an enormous gulf in outcomes between Tsunoda and his four-time world champion team-mate, Max Verstappen. The Dutchman additionally had a tricky stint in Hungary, struggling by way of the 70-lap race to select up simply two factors for his ninth-place end.
“Clearly, as a workforce, we struggled this weekend,” Tsunoda advised media following the Hungarian GP.
“So, despite the fact that I used to be one tenth behind, I could not go to Q2. So, on paper, it would not look good, however on the identical time, I feel what I am doing to this point is optimistic.”
The positives Tsunoda speaks of come as he’s closing in on the performances of his way more profitable team-mate. In Q1, Verstappen’s prime time of 1m15.736s was simply 0.163s faster than Tsunoda’s.
In distinction, Tsunoda was half a second off Verstappen’s tempo final week at Spa, and the hole was comparable on the earlier race at Silverstone.
“Yeah, I imply, that is optimistic, and it is exhibiting that I am making progress,” Tsunoda added. “After I launched the package deal a lot nearer to Max, if you happen to see on the paper – on the quick runs particularly – it is fairly clear that I am closing the hole to Max.
“Yesterday [Saturday qualifying] was most likely one of many closest gaps within the final 4 years, which I feel the workforce was happy with, and I feel I may be happy with that. So I am going to simply maintain what I am doing.”
Yuki Tsunoda, Crimson Bull Racing Staff
Photograph by: Guido De Bortoli
Regardless of the positives in qualifying, Tsunoda’s race tempo was, sadly, hampered by the tight observe in Hungary and injury that he picked up, which he says meant he “misplaced numerous tempo” within the closing levels of the grand prix.
“The baseline tempo was already [a real struggle for the] workforce,” Tsunoda defined. “And on prime of it, having injury was not excellent in any respect. Yep, just about the race was finished with that.”
Regardless of the end result on paper, the lowering hole to Verstappen will probably be precisely what Tsunoda hoped for heading into System 1’s summer season break.
“Clearly, there’s not a lot time to relaxation,” Tsunoda added. “It was a bit stunning the quantity of tempo we did not have within the final race [and] for the primary half of the season. However on the identical time, the fields are very, very tight.
“I feel when it comes to the package deal Crimson Bull [has brought] to this point, it is impressively good. The quantity of stuff they’ve finished within the first half of the season… is unbelievable. So I hope we will proceed with that [after the break].”
The workforce will probably be focusing on higher fortunes when F1 returns to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix on the finish of August, with its struggles in Hungary regarded as track-specific.
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