Horner praises Tsunoda for 'good feedback' at Red Bull despite challenges with tricky RB21

Max Verstappen ran into several issues during the Bahrain Grand Prix, but in the meantime, Yuki Tsunoda managed to score his first points as a Red Bull driver. Team principal Christian Horner later confirmed that the Japanese driver had been dealing with the same problems as Verstappen throughout the race.

Horner: 'Tsunoda feels similarly to Verstappen'

Speaking to GPblog and other media outlets, Horner addressed the similarities between the issues faced by Tsunoda and Verstappen during the race: “I think he feels similarly. He doesn’t have the reference of a 2023 or early 2024 car to draw on, but he’s giving good feedback. His comments align with Max’s on where the car needs to improve. He didn’t have the braking issues to the same extent, though."

For Tsunoda, despite the issues, it was still a weekend with positive takeaways. It marked the first time the second Red Bull driver had made it into Q3. Also, it was the first time that the second Red Bull driver scored points in 2025. However, Tsunoda would have hoped for a higher finishing position than ninth place.

However, it wasn’t a flawless race for Tsunoda. Not only was the car lacking pace, but the traffic light failed to turn green after his pit stop. On top of that, he also had an incident with Carlos Sainz during the race. The Williams driver was the only retiree at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Max Verstappen finished in sixth place in the other Red Bull car after a fundamentally challenging weekend for the Milton-Keynes based squad.

The Japanese driver will make his third Red Bull start next weekend at the final leg of the triple header in Saudi Arabia. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit has provided entertainment since its 2021 arrival,  

Read also

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Debacle with Verstappen and Tsunoda's pitstops: This is what went wrong at Red Bull

This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut