Tsunoda says his level of trust at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Prix was not dared by his crash late in FP2 on Friday.
The Red Bull driver enjoyed a competitive first day in Jeddah, almost matching the time of Max Verstappen on FP1 and then set the sixth fastest lap on FP2 despite struggling to put the tires in the proper operating window. A round the car and pushed the car comfortably, Tsunoda hit the inner wall at the final corner, breaking the steering and sending it to the outer barrier.
The costly moment of Yuki Tsunoda on FP2😱#F1 #saudiarabiangp pic.twitter.com/ofxpr5gg9q
– Formula 1 (@f1) April 18, 2025
“I put too much in and cut the wall with the inner wheel to do some damage,” Tsunoda said. “After that, I couldn’t control it, and that’s a shame because I apologized to the team because the pace looked good.
“My confidence level was pretty good. The final soft run was a bit compromised on warm-ups and everything. So far I was pretty ok. I was limited in the long run. It was caused by myself so I couldn’t complain.
Tsunoda was happy with the weekend’s start, but despite his teammate Verstappen finished FP2 in a competitive third place, despite Lando Noris’ fastest time of 0.28s Adrift.
“Well, we tried a few different things in the car, we tried to find another direction in the car,” Verstappen said. “We’ve learned a lot from it, but that’s not where we want it yet. Personally, I’m not really seeing the gap. At the end of the day, I have to shape my feelings.
“It’s different here because it’s a different track. The grip levels are different, but the setup is completely different too. It’s hard to compare, but it’s obvious that we want to be faster.
“One standout is that McLaren is very competitive, but from our point of view there’s still a lot of work to do and understand.”