Christian Horner Gives Yuki Tsunoda Assessment After Bahrain Grand Prix

Max Verstappen's teammates have often struggled in the other RB21, frequently underperforming compared to what the four-time champion is achieving.

The benchmark for the second seat is not Max Verstappen, but rather how closely they can get to Verstappen's performances.

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“I thought actually Yuki [Tsunoda] has had a very solid weekend, he qualified in the top 10, finished in the points today, he drove pretty well,” Horner told the media.

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

Red Bull as a team were not operationally firing on all cylinders, as there were several slow pit stops due to an issue with the pit light.

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Considering the situation, Tsunoda's performance was even more remarkable, especially given the importance of pitstops in this high-degradation race.

“Well the first stop, Max came in and the light didn't do anything and of course it's a very simple system that we expected… the button hadn't been pressed hard enough by one of the technicians, and the next pit stop was within one minute and then it happened again and at that point, we went into a manual override on the system and the chief mechanic released the car,” Horner said.

“I think we need to look into it, I've just heard that there was some kind of wiring or electrical issue with the gantries, one I certainly haven't seen before."

“The drivers live by those traffic lights and the actual stops were pretty good, there was a two-second stop but then the drivers are waiting for the lights – and then obviously it didn't go out... We'll have a good look at it.”

The RB21 was also not running well due to tire degradation in Bahrain, which will likely persist for the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

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With no upgrades planned for the team, it will likely be another tough race for the team.

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