Tsunoda by Red Bull is the last of a long line of Japanese drivers looking for success F1 – Firstpost

Suzuka, Japan: Yuki Tsunoda has finally promoted Red Bull. It was quite difficult, raised to the best team last week when Liam Lawson was demoted in team n ° 2 from Red Bull in Formula 1 – Racing Bulls – after failing points in the first two races of the season.

Delivery will be even more difficult because Tsunoda joins a long list of Japanese drivers with various degrees of success in F1. His first Grand Prix for Red Bull is Sunday in Japan.

Tsunoda faces the pressure before worshiping the house fans, is another Japanese pilot trying to unravel and supports the weight of the race alongside the quadruple champion F1 Max Verstappen.

What advice did the director of the Red Bull Christian Horner team give him?

“Be close to Max,” said Tsunoda Thursday on the Suzuka track. He described as “brutal” which was not initially chosen by Red Bull for this season, but looked relaxed by taking a question about this steep promotion.

“I’m not saying that I am convinced that I can play right away like Max,” he added. But he said he was convinced that he could well produce in relation to the “other drivers” that Red Bull could have chosen.

Lawson also seemed to be relaxed, smiling while he asked questions about his demotion.

“It’s something I didn’t expect,” said Lawson. “This is something that is obviously not my decision and for me, it’s about getting the most out of this.”

Lawson has attributed a part of trouble doing in his first two races with Red Bull to unknown tracks in Australia and China. He hoped to prove himself in Japan, where he led last season to F1.

This time, it will be with racing bulls and not Red Bull.

“This is what I was looking forward to from the start, to be honest,” he said, referring to the Suzuka circuit in central Japan. “On a track on which I went before and that I just have a good kind of preparation. It is a track that we all like a pilot.”

This is the fifth season of Tsunoda in F1, and it must deliver points to Red Bull. His best career was fourth place in Abu Dhabi in 2021. He finished points with racing bulls in the first two races of the Grand Prix this season, but ranked sixth in the Sprint race almost two weeks ago in China.

Red Bull’s car this weekend will work with white paint work, a tribute to the Honda of automaker. Verstappen won four consecutive titles with Honda Power. This is Red Bull last season with Honda, moving next year in Ford. Honda is moving to Aston Martin next season.

It’s his best chance, and Tsunoda will have to excel to stay with Red Bull. Not only for this season, but and then.

A Japanese has never won a F1 race

Nearly 20 Japanese pilots competed and none won an F1 race. The Japanese only reached the podium three times in F1. And all were third place.

Aguri Suzuki was the first to reach the podium, finishing third in the Japanese GP from 1990.

Kamui Kobayashi finished third from the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix with Sauber and scored more points in F1 than any Japanese driver.

Takuma Sato achieved a third in the 2004 American Grand Prix. He is also a double winner of Indianapolis 500.

Season so far

McLaren won the first two races – Lando Norris in Australia and Oscar Piastri in China – in a field that looks closely.

Norris leads the driver’s ranking with 44 points, followed by Verstappen with 36 and George Russell from Mercedes with 35. Piastri is a point back with 34.

The champion seven times Lewis Hamilton, who joined Ferrari this season after leaving Mercedes, has only nine points. It was 10th in Australia and was disqualified in China after a post-examination examination. So far, its best result is a victory in the Sprint race in China.

Hamilton has won five times in Japan, and his Ferrari team has promised to repair the errors that saw Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc disqualified in China.