Tsunoda says experience the only thing holding him back from beating Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda is on a mission to close the Formula 1 experience gap between himself and team-mate Max Verstappen.

The recently-promoted Red Bull driver said the RB21 is particularly tricky to drive without prior experience, which gives Verstappen a major advantage.

“I’m quite happy with my confidence level considering we’re only two races in, but I’m trying to understand how this car operates … [because] I’m not fully understanding even half of it yet,” Tsunoda told reporters in Jeddah on Thursday.

The Japanese driver has set realistic short-term goals for himself, but is confident he could challenge the four-time world champion if he had the same level of confidence behind the wheel.

“I know that I can’t beat him straight away, so I’m just trying to build a good baseline and wait for the moments that I can be in [good] shape,” Tsunoda said.

“It comes down to the experience really, this car behaves quite differently at each track so it’s hard to predict.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“Max understands it quite well and the engineers understand it from their experience at previous grands prix. So, they can explain it to me in words, but I don’t understand exactly what that feels like in the car.

“I just have to take time and build it up. When I unlock that area, I would probably be able to beat him.”

In the meantime, Tsunoda admitted he still has a lot to learn after spending four years at Red Bull’s junior team.

“I’m not fully relaxing driving this car – I’m still rushing and not fully in control yet,” he said.

“I know how Max builds his confidence throughout the week compared to how I build confidence and it’s completely different. He can feel more than I can in the car and he has so much confidence in it.”