Horner delivers Tsunoda verdict after first Red Bull points

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has praised Yuki Tsunoda after the Japanese driver bagged his first points of the season.

Tsunoda took part in his second race with the Milton Keynes-based squad last weekend in Bahrain after receiving a call-up to the squad in place of a struggling Liam Lawson.

For the first time this year, the second Red Bull car qualified inside the top 10 and brought home points.

While it marked a step forward compared to the results in the opening round, Red Bull overall endured a difficult event as it did not have the pace to compete at the front of the field.

Despite walking away from Bahrain with its lowest point-scoring event in the opening four rounds, Horner took time to commend Tsunoda's performance.

“I thought actually Yuki had a very solid weekend, he qualified in the top 10, finished in the points, he drove pretty well,” Horner told media including RacingNews365.

“He was only 12 or 14 seconds behind his team-mate so I thought Yuki's race was actually reasonable.”

Red Bull has upgrades planned for Imola, which it hopes will allow it to close the gap to pace-setters McLaren.

As the teams rely on the feedback delivered by the drivers to develop the car, Horner confirmed Tsunoda's reports are quite similar to Verstappen's.

“He [Tsunoda] hasn't got the reference of a 2023 car or early 2024 car to draw upon,” Horner said. “But he's giving good feedback.

“His comments are largely in line with the feeling that Max has, his limitations are in the same areas where Max is feeling the car needs to be improved.”