Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, 2025

Yuki Tsunoda remains convinced he is making progress at Red Bull despite failing to score in a grand prix for the 14th time since joining them.

He finished 12th in Las Vegas after being promoted two places by the disqualifications of the McLaren drivers.

Red Bull accepted blame for his elimination in the first round of qualifying yesterday due to an error with his tyre pressures. Tsunoda started from the pit lane as a result.

He pitted to change tyres at the end of lap one which left him unable to capitalise on the Virtual Safety Car period on the following lap, when Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson all pitted.

Tsunoda said that was “very unfortunate” for his race. “The [Virtual] Safety Car [was deployed] right after I pitted. So that’s not ideal at all, and that’s it really,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I stayed in the dirty air afterwards because people came into the pits. It feels like everything is so far going against me.”

He showed promising pace at the start of the weekend, ending first practice ahead of his team mate Max Verstappen. “I think the pace I’ve shown until qualifying was good and qualifying was just completely not in my control and a lost opportunity,” he said. “It’s tough.

“At least the pace itself, I guess, is going the right direction but it’s frustrating that I know I couldn’t really show it in the result.”

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Red Bull are yet to confirm whether Tsunoda, who was promoted to the team at the third round this year, will remain with them for next season. Tsunoda said he believes the team have noticed his potential but said he wants to show he can achieve results too.

“Multiple times – FP1, FP2, FP3 – in multiple laps I was ahead of Max in performance runs,” he said. “I think [that’s] something that I didn’t have and we didn’t see probably for a long time.

“Obviously one of his strengths is he’ll bring the car on his level, into another level in qualifying, which is his strength. But also I had confidence as well into qualifying [that] I can perform better than the other race weekends, and these things happen.

“I guess people noticed it. But at the same time what I want is a result – and, obviously, the team as well. But we can’t keep pointing like this in terms of this mistake [in qualifying] and everything. So [we need to] tidy it up for Qatar.”

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