Tsunoda: It's very difficult to find the limit of the RB21's capabilities

      Yuki Tsunoda clocked 8th on Saturday at the Jeddah high-speed urban circuit, and this is his best qualifying result since he became a Red Bull Racing driver. However, he admitted that he was not entirely satisfied, as it was still difficult for him to find the limit of what was possible behind the wheel of the RB21 car.

      His frustration is understandable, because he lost more than nine tenths of a second to Max Verstappen, his team-mate who won pole.

      "At turn 4, the car started skidding sharply," Tsunoda is quoted as saying by RacingNews365. "When I try to attack more actively, the car still loses stability, and it is very difficult to find the limit of what is possible. Therefore, in the final of the qualification, when the decisive moment comes, we have to act aggressively.

      Piloting the VCARB machine, I knew where the limit of its capabilities was, and I could squeeze everything out of it, right down to the last milliseconds. But now it's harder to find the limit, and I don't drive circles very carefully all the time. This makes me very upset.

      When the track is not in the best condition yet and the grip level is low, I manage to complete laps with a normal time. But I've already realized that as soon as the grip increases, the difficulties begin immediately. However, when we set up the car, we thought less about the speed on one fast lap, and more about the pace on long runs.

      Although my mood is already more confident than it was during the second practice session on Friday, then on a long series of laps our pace, to be honest, was not so good. All in all, it's not going to be an easy race, but I want to get ahead of at least one car."

      To help the Japanese driver gain the necessary confidence, Red Bull Racing plans to organize tests for him at Silverstone next week behind the wheel of the RB19, a 2023 car.