Tsunoda remains unphased by Verstappen's form, 'focuses on himself' instead

17:58, 29 May

byKada Sarkozi

Yuki Tsunoda does not want to look at Max Verstappen's performances. The Red Bull driver underlined once again that he wants to concentrate only on himself in Barcelona.

The Barcelona track did not see many different drivers take victory since 2016. After Verstappen won his first ever F1 Grand Prix that season, Hamilton was faultless until 2021, and the previous three editions were also won by the Dutchman.

While the defending world champion hopes to cross the finish line first for the fifth time in Catalonia, Tsunoda is also encouraged by Red Bull's past results at the circuit.

In order to have a chance at finishing on at least the podium, the Japanese driver has to do better than in Monaco, when he got eliminated in Q2 and failed to score points.

Tsunoda sees himself getting faster at Red Bull

At the FIA press conference, the Japanese driver began: "Monaco was pretty good until qualifying. Yeah, red flag and lots of things didn’t go to plan. Obviously, it’s always hard to be on the plan and there was definitely a lap that I could have done slightly better. So in that sense, yeah, qualifying was very tough for us, tough for me especially. But at least until FP2, FP3, I was fighting quite close."

According to Tsunoda, he could drive the best so far since he joined Red Bull Racing.

"To be honest, the pace was probably best ever. So, it’s getting there. And Barcelona – yeah, I mean, I didn’t see much history about the Red Bull winning here, but you said four times he’s won, that’s good news. But I just keep focusing on myself rather than Max."

This article was written in collaboration with Ludo van Denderen