Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda went back-to-back weekends outside the points column at the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing 13th for the second consecutive race. His weekend started roughly before the lights even dropped.
After a tough showing in qualifying, Tsunoda said he was confused to be at the back of the grid despite appearing confident with his performance at the time.
The Japanese driver ended up six-tenths slower than Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen — whose times came on a slower track.
It didn’t get any easier for Tsunoda, who found himself in an early hole after Red Bull opted for a pit lane start following a pre-race rear wing change. He wasn’t able to climb back into the top 10, even after a late safety car gave the field a chance to bunch up in the final laps.
Pierre Wache admits Yuki Tsunoda mistake
Speaking on the early decision, Red Bull’s technical director Pierre Wache told Shiga Sports Japan that the rear wing change was meant to improve the car’s consistency, but later admitted: “This is our mistake. We’ve tried something very different than before.”
Trying to address the differences in the rear wing setup, Red Bull went as far as to swap out Tsunoda’s entire assembly ahead of the race, which forced the team’s decision to start him out of pit lane.
“We’ve tried something very different than before. We tried to try a larger rear wing and see if I could perform in the preliminary round. This is our mistake,”
“We plan to install new items on the underfloor of Tsunoda. Due to the damage suffered from the crash in Imola, it is difficult to produce results, and they are struggling. I hope they are ready for Tsunoda in Montreal.”
Yuki Tsunoda finding out how hard Red Bull RB21 is to drive like Liam Lawson
The weekend was another reminder of how difficult the 2025 season has been for Red Bull.
The season started with the team replacing Liam Lawson after just two races, hoping Tsunoda would offer an upgrade in qualifying speed, but his early pace hasn’t moved Red Bull closer to the front of the field.
Speaking after his Q1 elimination in Spain, Verstappen said he believes Tsunoda is starting to run into the same issues as former teammate Liam Lawson.
Tsunoda’s average qualifying deficit is an estimated 0.7 to Verstappen at this point — similar to Sergio Perez’s gap the year before — although Perez had over 100 more points by the same point of the 2024 calendar.
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