Yuki Tsunoda has been tasked with what is often described as “the hardest job in Formula One,” that is being the team mate to Max Verstappen. Having been overlooked in December as the team decided to promote Liam Lawson to the vacant Sergio Perez seat at Red Bull Racing, the Japanese driver has been given his chance to impress after the Kiwi driver was relegated back to the Racing Bulls team for the Japanese Grand Prix.

With no pre-season testing and two Sprint weekends in his first four with his new team, Tsunoda has been grappling with the vagaries of the RB21 and arguably doing a better job than his predecessor.

In his first outing on home soil, Tsunoda hauled the second RB21 out of Q1 to start the GP P15. A solid race saw him finish P12. Things were to get even better in Bahrain, where the Japanese driver made the top ten shootout, starting the race in P10 and improving one spot at the chequered flag. The first points for the second RB21.

 

 

 

Red Bull pit stop error

At the second weekend in the middle east, Tsunoda made Q3 again, but despite starting in P8 his race ended in tears with a first lap coming together with Pierre Gasly. This weekend in Miami, poor communication saw Yuki qualify just P18 for the Sprint, yet a masterly switch to the dry weather tyres before anyone else, saw him profit  with points coming home in sixth and ahead of his team mate who had been penalised by the race stewards.

Yet the Miami Sprint result may have looked very different if Red Bull could’ve had their way with Verstappen being given a ten second penalty for shoddy pit stop work and an ‘unsafe release.’ Fighting with a broken front wing, Verstappen was pushing to open the gap to those behind in an effort to mitigate his incoming time penalty.

Yet a coming together between Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso saw a late safety car deployed which bunched the field up as usual. This now meant Max’s ten second penalty would prove particularly harsh dropping him out of the points and to be classified towards the back of the field.

With the McLaren pair leading the race in 1-2 formation, Red Bull were desperate to find a way to ensure Verstappen finished somehow in the points. This is where McLaren and Red Bull operate differently. The former’s ‘fair driving’ policy leaves the papaya liveried drivers free to race.

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However, all of Red Bull’s efforts this season are being targeted at a Max Verstappen fifth consecutive drivers win and whoever is driving the second car not only plays second fiddle, but fixer when Max is in trouble. Lawson’s mauling of the Aston Martin meant he too was likely to receive a time penalty and being two spots ahead of Tsunoda he was advised to remain as close as possible to the Kiwi.

Here are the radio messages not broadcast by FOM, with Ricard Wood being Tsunoda’s race engineer.

Wood: “Liam, two cars ahead of you, is under investigation so he may get a penalty. This is the final lap, keep it tight, keep it tight. We will finish under the Safety Car but keep it tight in case there’s penalties ahead.”

Yet the instructions drastically changed as Tsunoda approached turn 17 on what was to be the final lap. Wood now instructs Yuki to fall back to around eight lengths from the car in front, ten lengths is the maximum allowed when behind a safety car.

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Tsunoda told to create space for Max

Wood: “So we need to be within eight, drop back to eight car lengths behind Bearman, please. Eight car lengths behind.”

Tsunoda: “What? What?”

Wood: “I’ll explain in the garage, I’ll explain in the garage.”

Clearly Red Bull are now hoping that as the safety car peels away into the pit lane for Norris to take victory that the McLaren driver boots it through the final turn stringing out the cars behind him. This could create enough of a gap between the following cars, that After Verstappen’s time ope ally was applied he would remain within the points. 

Also by telling Yuki to drop back from Bearman, that too puts distance between Max and the car’s behind the number two Red Bull driver, but Tsunoda doesn’t understand what he’s being told to do.

Old McLaren ‘cheating’ tactic comes around again to bite

 

 

 

Confusion reigns on Red Bull pit wall

Tsunoda: “You mean like make a gap or what? To the car in front?”

Wood: “Recharge on here, I’ll explain in the garage.”

Tsunoda: “Mate!”

Tsunoda: “I’m sorry but like, the communications man, like in qualifying, it’s terrible.”

Wood: “Yeah, the request came late, I’ll explain in the garage.”

Tsunoda: “Did I do the right thing or what? Did I do the right thing?”

Wood: “Yes you did, yes you did. Thank you very much.”

For those thinking that Red Bull merely used Tsunoda to maximise Max’s position, this is not quite true as there could have made an even more drastic demand. Had the Japanese driver fallen more than ten car lengths behind the car in front, he would have been penalised, which is something Red Bull could have asked him to do.

No other cars would have been allowed to overtake Tsunoda, who himself could have created a ten second gap ahead of him for his team mate to slot into.

So Red Bull did not go all the way with their attempts to mitigate Verstappen’s penalty, if they had there wold have been a huge row in the paddock as F1’s most ruthless team would once again be heavily criticised for bending the rules to their favour.

At the end of the season, the five points dropped by Red Bull’s mistake at the pit stop in the Miami sprint, may prove to be the vital error Red Bull failed to correct.

‘Exciting’ Perez appearance in Miami

 

 

 

 

READ MORE F1 NEWS – McLaren concern as “weakness” exposed by Red Bull

Max Verstappen claimed his third Grand Prix pole position of the 2025 season, not bad for a driver who has been given the least competitive car produced by Red Bull in over half a decade. Then again could it be that the Milton Keynes based squad are sandbagging?

Speaking after another Verstappen pole position, a visibly disappointed Andreas Stella went on to claim that he believes the RB21 is a better car than most people believe. Max is the first driver to rack up three GP pole positions this year, pipping Lando Norris in Japan and Miami and Oscar Piastri in Jeddah.

McLaren’s ‘cool’ Aussie driver leads the world championship from his team mate by nine points, but Verstappen lurks not far behind despite a disappointing Sprint race result which saw him handed a time penalty and with the mini race finishing behind the safety car, Verstappen’s fourth on the road quickly became seventeenth when the ten second time penalty was applied…. READ MORE ON THIS STORY