“Frustrated” Tsunoda unable to maximise RB21 having qualified P8 in Jeddah

Yuki Tsunoda was a “frustrated” figure after qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as the Red Bull driver admitted he is unable to find the car’s limit.

The Japanese driver qualified eighth in Jeddah while his team-mate Max Verstappen took a stunning pole for Sunday’s grand prix.

It is only Tsunoda’s third race weekend for Red Bull having been promoted from sister squad Racing Bulls to replace the struggling Liam Lawson, after just two rounds of the 2025 Formula 1 campaign.

Although Tsunoda found the VCARB 02 a relatively smooth car to drive, he emphasised after Jeddah qualifying just how tricky the RB21 is. 

“I had a massive snap in Turn 4,” said Tsunoda. “When I push more, this unpredictable snap keeps happening and it’s just really hard to reach the limit.

“I could squeeze out the last few seconds, or few milliseconds [of the Racing Bulls car], but currently it’s hard to find the limit so I’m really frustrated.”

Tsunoda is keen to give himself more time to get up to speed with the “unpredictable” Red Bull to close the gap to his four-time world champion team-mate. 

“I wouldn’t say I’m struggling [against Verstappen] because it’s only the third race, but it’s really unpredictable so far – I still don’t know why I had that snap,” he added.

Tsunoda also said he could learn from Verstappen’s ability to set up and handle the car in different conditions.

“Maybe I was too comfortable with the set-up I had in free practice, which is when the track was in a bad condition,” he said, noting he found it harder to driver as the track rubbered in.

“But when the track got better with these cold temperatures, maybe I have to think about it slightly more.

“For me, it was worse when the track got better and better, so that’s the difficult part.”