Laurent Mekies did something for Yuki Tsunoda that had never ‘happened before’ at Red Bull for the Belgian Grand Prix

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Yuki Tsunoda is already reaping the benefits of having Laurent Mekies at the helm of Red Bull Racing due to a number of different factors.

Yuki Tsunoda‘s seventh-place grid slot at the Belgian Grand Prix was his best qualifying performance at Red Bull since he swapped seats with Liam Lawson in April.

Despite the season-best qualifying with Red Bull, the Japanese driver suffered in the pit stop phase of the race and dropped down to 13th place by the time the chequered flag was flown.

Laurent Mekies admitted that Tsunoda’s later stop was a mistake and that they should have brought him in a lap earlier when they replaced Max Verstappen‘s wet-weather tyres for slicks.

The Frenchman was left ‘heavily irritated’ before the start of the Grand Prix. Mekies and Verstappen were not happy with the FIA’s decision to delay the start of the race by over an hour due to the heavy rain.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda’s life outside F1 from height to parents

Laurent Mekies decided to give one of Max Verstappen’s upgraded floors to Yuki Tsunoda ahead of qualifying

Speaking on The Inside Track podcast, journalist Matt Majendie revealed his surprise at Mekies‘ decision to give Tsunoda one of Verstappen’s upgraded floors following a difficult result in the Belgian GP Sprint race and ahead of qualifying for the Grand Prix.

“There was one big change,” the journalist started. “I said before the race that they wouldn’t see any change at all, and actually, he made the call to put the new floor on Yuki’s car. That hadn’t happened before. So that’s actually one big change.

That was a spare floor that was going to be for Max, but he decided to put that on Yuki’s car for qualifying and the race. And you actually saw the positive effect of that because Yuki qualified in seventh.”

The journalist also noted that there was some frustration from Tsunoda regarding his access to the upgrades his teammate gets at the earliest opportunity. “I felt there was frustration when talking to him that he wasn’t getting the upgrades that Max has,” Majendie continued.

“He doesn’t have that, so the fact that Mekies has made that call to give him the floor. He’s in his ear going, ‘give me an upgrade’. Gets that and suddenly puts himself in P7, which is a pretty good qualifying session.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies

Yuki Tsunoda is grateful to have someone with an ‘engineering mind’ leading Red Bull

Tsunoda worked closely with Mekies at Racing Bulls in seasons prior, the team where the Japanese driver enjoyed the best results of his career to date.

When asked about the advantages his old boss brings to his new team, Tsunoda touched upon the Frenchman’s attention to detail as a leading factor of his success, saying, “He has an engineering mind, he’s really detailed.

“The small details are really hard to understand, and if you have someone like that who understands engineers, he knows exactly what we’re talking about.”

This sentiment has been shared across a number of drivers who have been led by the team principal in the past. Carlos Sainz also identified Mekies’ engineering mind as a key trait of his that makes him a ‘perfect fit’ at Red Bull.