Christian Horner backs Tsunoda to improve after "solid" Japanese GP showing

Christian Horner has commented on Yuki Tsunoda's pace following the Japanese Grand Prix. Despite a challenging weekend for the Japanese driver, Horner expects his pace to come "over the coming races."

Tsunoda finished 12th in his home race after starting 15th. A mistake in Q2 put him towards the back of the pack for the race, a campaign that each driver struggled to overtake in. Despite this, he managed to pass Liam Lawson, the driver he replaced at Red Bull, and later gained a position on Pierre Gasly with a well-timed undercut. 

His race dragged on behind Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, a driver he wasn't able mount a serious attack on.

"I think Yuki had a solid race today, and I think that 90% of the field finished where they qualified," Horner told Channel 4 following the race. "Yuki passed one car, we undercut one car, he followed Fernando Alonso for 90% of the race.

"You know, he'll have learned a lot this weekend, he was giving great feedback all weekend, and I think the pace is going to come with him over the coming races."

Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

One factor that could have affected Tsunoda's overtaking performance was a rear wing setup for high downforce. This decision, made due to the potential threat of rain, provided more drag on the straights. 

"I knew it's going to be tough for overtaking," Tsunoda said after the race. "I was expecting if, for example, tyre degradation is massive, it could be a really good situation, but degradation was even zero.

“To be honest after FP3 I was considering to go lower, as low as Max, but already until FP3 I didn't have much time because of tyres, red flags, whatever. And also we were changing a lot of set-ups. And I never had a consistent car, consistent laps.

“I thought, I just want to keep it the same car, to qualify and race, because there was a chance for the rain. I just wanted to have a consistent car.

“If I had exactly the same grand prix, I'd go a different way.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko gave his verdict on Tsunoda's performance.

"It was good. It was just unlucky that in Qualifying 2 he had this mistake. But otherwise it was fine," he admitted.