Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the team need to get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong for Yuki Tsunoda after a poor weekend for him in Austria.
Tsunoda was eliminated in Q1, despite having lapped within three tenths of a second of team mate Max Verstappen.
From 18th on the grid, Tsunoda failed to make progress and was the last driver running at the finish, two laps down. He was given a 10-second time penalty for colliding with Franco Colapinto and also tangled with Lance Stroll.
“With Yuki, obviously it’s difficult to make progress from starting where he did on the grid and then picking up a penalty as well with Colapinto,” Horner told the official F1 website. “So a horrible race for him today as well. It’s frustrating but we’ll move on quickly to Silverstone.”
As has often been the case this year, Tsunoda’s lap times appeared to be more competitive earlier in the weekend during free practice. However he failed to make it beyond Q1 for the third time in five race weekends.
“We need to understand with Yuki what’s gone wrong because, certainly [in second and third practice] he was looking okay,” said Horner. “In qualifying, it seemed to fall apart for him.
“Then when you’re out of position, you’re down the pack like that, when it’s so tight he’s struggling for confidence. But we’ll work with him, we’ll try and help him through it.”
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Tsunoda joined Red Bull when the team dropped Liam Lawson just two rounds into the season. However Tsunoda has been little closer to Verstappen than Lawson was in recent races, prompting questions over how difficult Red Bull’s car is to drive.
“The car is a car that’s evolved over the years around the development path that we’ve taken,” said Horner. “It isn’t an easy car to drive but it’s not that difficult either.
“So we’ll work with him and hopefully it’ll make a step up in Silverstone.
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2025 Austrian Grand Prix
- McLaren’s warning over turn four more on Norris was “fair” – Piastri
- Red Bull need to understand cause of Tsunoda’s “horrible” race – Horner
- Colapinto given penalty point for forcing Piastri off while being lapped
- Antonelli gets three-place grid drop for Silverstone after taking Verstappen out
- Norris resists Piastri to lead McLaren one-two after Verstappen is taken out
