Yuki Tsunoda says Racing Bulls has been "pretty impressed" with the way he has adapted to Formula 1's 2026-spec machinery as he stands in for Liam Lawson at the Dutch Grand Prix. Lawson got a call-up to Red Bull after Isack Hadjar injured his wrist over the summer break, hence Tsunoda's opportunity at Racing Bulls on a tricky sprint weekend in Zandvoort.
The 26-year-old was unfamiliar with the new generation of cars but has been getting closer and closer to impressive rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad. He was 0.825s adrift of the Briton in the only free practice session, but brought his deficit down to 0.433s in SQ1 and 0.360s in SQ2, then 0.011s in Q1 and 0.102s in Q2, having finished the sprint race 11.5 seconds in arrears.
"Honestly, I'm super happy," the Japanese racer rejoiced. "I enjoyed so much this qualifying. Yesterday's qualifying was okay, but I didn't know where the limit was still, it was still a fresh car. But this qualifying was a bit more like a proper qualifying, able to trust more the car and throw the car into the corners."
F1's new machinery requires sophisticated energy management on top of the revamped chassis and aero, and Tsunoda doesn't shy away from the fact this has been a substantial challenge in many areas. "It's a completely different car," he said. "The brake feeling, the amount of pressure, those limits, it's different. And downforce especially is also different. Also deploying energy, where to discharge and everything, suddenly you get deceleration from the car. Those things were not easy to adapt, but I was able to get used to it faster than I expected."
The sprint race was useful for the Racing Bulls driver to get to grips with the start procedure while taking in invaluable experience. "That 24 laps, every single lap I was able to learn, and I think I was able to prove that in this qualifying, every single session I was coming closer and closer," he added.
And while Q3 eluded him by a tenth, Tsunoda reckoned the squad was still happy with his performance. "The team obviously wanted both cars to be in Q3," he admitted, having taken 12th place on the grid. "But from yesterday, they were pretty impressed with the progression. I'm pretty satisfied with what I've done."
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