Yuki Tsunoda shares details of botched Red Bull F1 test

Yuki Tsunoda has explained why his private test with Red Bull after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix failed to go to plan. To further aid his embedding process following his call-up to the team, Red Bull arranged a TPC (testing of previous cars) outing for the Japanese driver at the Silverstone Circuit. Tsunoda got behind the wheel of the RB19 from 2023 as he looked to unlock a further understanding of Red Bull machinery - but the test was derailed by adverse weather conditions. “I experienced the classic British weather – started damp and we didn’t bring any wet tyres, just because we didn’t want to waste any mileage for the driver TPC test,” Tsunoda told media including RacingNews365 . “So we waited quite a long time for it to dry up.” Full-time F1 drivers are limited to just 1,000km across four days of TPC sessions, making each opportunity a highly valuable outing for the competitor. As well as weather impacting the test outing, Tsunoda revealed a car issue threw a further spanner in the works. “Unfortunately, we got a bit of an issue at the end of the day as well,” Tsunoda added. “So in the end, we didn’t drive much, but still a cool experience. “To be honest, it’s hard to feel the difference, right? It was completely different conditions and completely different corner characteristics compared to previous races that I’ve raced. “Also, I didn’t want to give stupid feedback to make confusion, so I told them what I felt clearly, but otherwise, still a good test for me to get some mileage.”