Mekies apologises to Tsunoda for late pit call which dropped him out of points

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies offered an apology to Yuki Tsunoda after they called him in to the pits too late during the Belgian Grand Prix.

Tsunoda was running inside the top 10 as the track dried out and Red Bull called him in to switch from intermediate tyres to slicks. However he received the instruction too late to enter the pit lane and had to complete another lap before he was able to come in.

The delay cost Tsunoda as other drivers switched to slicks sooner. He fell to 13th place at the finish.

“We called him too late today and that’s cost him position[s],” Mekies told the official Formula 1 channel. “So sorry to him for that, because he was doing a good race until [then]. The crew was ready, we simply called him too late so we’ll certainly do better next time there.”

However Mekies said he expects Tsunoda to build on this weekend after a late upgrade for his RB21 helped him score his best qualifying position since joining the team.

“He did a very strong qualifying yesterday,” said Mekies. “We upgraded the car just before qualifying but it’s so difficult to adapt […] with new conditions in a qualifying session like that. He did a very, very strong job, so I’m very happy for him.

“Today he had the right pace as well and he was certainly up for some good points, but that’s how it went. So we take the good step forward this weekend and hopefully we carry on in Budapest.”

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Max Verstappen finished fourth after the team opted to switch him to a higher-downforce configuration due to the threat of rain. Mekies acknowledged the choice made it hard for Verstappen to make progress when the track dried out in the second half of the race.

“I think Max has probably had enough of Charles [Leclerc’s] gearbox tonight,” said Mekies. “I think he spent every single lap in Charles’ gearbox.

“It’s part of the game, we didn’t get much wet running and obviously we did make quite aggressive choices with the car to try to be in a good place for the heavy rain that came earlier today.

“Then afterwards on the dry, I think Max tried everything to get around Charles but I don’t think there has been very much overtaking in the dry this afternoon. So it was really tough, especially with the car in that configuration.”

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