Last Updated on October 19 2025, 10:21 pm
Tsunoda lashes out at Red Bull and Lawson after sprint qualifying chaos which saw the Japanese driver dumped out of SQ1 – Red Bull Racing had contrasting fortunes during sprint qualifying: Max Verstappen secured pole position with a perfect performance, while Yuki Tsunoda languished in eighteenth place. It was another frustrating day for the Japanese driver, who made no attempt to hide his anger afterwards.
While Verstappen’s performance demonstrated Red Bull’s usual dominance, Tsunoda’s experience revealed the fragile coordination within the sister team, as well as a growing sense of irritation among the drivers and management.
It was a qualifying session of two extremes
The sprint qualifying session unfolded with its fair share of drama. Track conditions were constantly improving, making the timing of the final flying laps crucial.
In SQ1, seven drivers, including Tsunoda, missed out on completing a second lap as the clock ran out. The 25-year-old finished twenty painful seconds too late to start his final run, leaving him stranded in eighteenth place. While others narrowly missed the cut-off time, Tsunoda was further adrift; his fate was sealed before he even crossed the finish line. His earlier banker lap simply wasn’t fast enough to rescue him.
When asked about the situation by Viaplay, Tsunoda’s tone made it clear that he was both disappointed and bewildered.
“I don’t know. We need to look into this more closely,” he said, his measured words filled with frustration. For a driver fighting to secure his future at Red Bull, such moments could hardly come at a worse time.
Tension over Red Bull’s future line-up
Tsunoda’s seat for 2026 is far from guaranteed. Isack Hadjar is widely tipped for a promotion to the main Red Bull team, leaving Tsunoda and Liam Lawson as the most likely candidates to join Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls. This impending competition only added fuel to an already tense qualifying incident.
Lawson, who was also caught up in the late-lap chaos, found himself directly involved in Tsunoda’s downfall. As the pair exited the pits in the final minutes, Tsunoda attempted to overtake Lawson in order to begin his own push lap, but was forced off the track by his former teammate. The Japanese driver didn’t mince words afterwards.
“It’s more a matter of how he is. That’s just how Liam is,” he remarked. “It was the usual story with him. I don’t expect anything more from him, to be honest.”
Lawson ultimately advanced to SQ2 in fifteenth place, despite not completing his final lap, a bitter twist for Tsunoda, who could only watch from the sidelines.
Verstappen publicly mocks McLaren
His frustration was aimed at Red Bull’s strategy
While Tsunoda’s frustration with Lawson was clear, his anger towards the Red Bull pit wall was even stronger. According to him, the team’s mismanagement of timing and pit exit strategy was the root cause of his failure to complete another lap.
‘The timing of exiting the pit lane was also an issue,” Tsunoda said. “I didn’t even get close. I have no idea what happened. Clearly something went wrong, and we didn’t get the chance to set a time. It’s a shame.”
He didn’t stop there, though. “It’s very frustrating,” he continued, shaking his head. “I can’t do anything about this. It’s more their fault than mine. They have to keep an eye on the timing. This is truly scandalous.”
His comments marked one of the rare occasions on which a Red Bull-affiliated driver had publicly criticised the team’s operations so bluntly.
The contrasting fortunes of Verstappen and Tsunoda highlighted the disparity within the Red Bull system. While Verstappen was perfectly positioned at the front of the pit lane when it mattered most, Tsunoda’s side of the garage appeared disorganised and reactive. His first SQ1 lap had been mediocre, leaving him dependent on a second attempt that never materialised.
A driver on the edge
For Tsunoda, the incident represents more than just a lost qualifying session, it’s symbolic of his precarious position within the Red Bull hierarchy. He has long been praised for his raw speed and passion, but his emotional outbursts and inconsistency often leave him vulnerable when results turn sour.
While publicly blaming the team may be justified in this case, it won’t have gone unnoticed by Red Bull management.
Nevertheless, Tsunoda’s candour reflects a deeper frustration felt by many drivers in the junior programme. The Racing Bulls setup is notorious for its volatility, and with Lawson, Hadjar and Lindblad all competing for position, every session feels like a career-defining moment.
As the sprint race approaches, Tsunoda faces an uphill battle to recover from eighteenth place on the grid. However, the bigger challenge may lie off the track: convincing Red Bull that he still deserves a future within their ever-shifting structure.
MORE F1 NEWS – The farce of the F1 Sprint and the elephant in the room
Formula One has rolled into cowboy territory in Texas and the weekend will see the much loved Sprint format on track and the shootout begins on Friday afternoon for pole position for the shortened race on Saturday morning.
The Sprint is loved by the F1 hosts given since its inception in 2021, pretty much every Sprint weekend has seen record ticket sales on Friday when the regular weekends have just practice sessions.
Yet unfortunately, the Sprint is often a fairly dull affair of just 100km in length. Sixteen of the twenty one held so far have been won from pole position. The first Sprint not to be won from pole was the last of the 2022 season in Brazil – at the time there were just three of these events a season and qualifying was a single track session which decided the starting order for both Sprint and Grand Prix.
Just five Sprints won from outside pole
The following season the number of Sprint’s was increased to six and again it was in Brazil where the only win not from pole position was seen, there’s something about Interlagos which has thrown up some of F1’s most historic moments. Lando Norris claimed pole but it was Max Verstappen who made a daring move around the outside who claimed the victory.
In 2024 Sprint qualifying was separated from that which set the order for the Grand Prix and is now held on the Friday afternoon instead of a practice session. And the final two of the events were won from outside the number one starting position. It was again in Brazil again where the first win was not from pole in the Sprint as Oscar Piastri was passed Shellie by his team mate Lando Norris who went on to win the shorter of the two races held that weekend.
The next Sprint that year saw the reversal of the McLaren driver’s fortunes with Norris claiming…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
A Brazilian motorsport writer with a background in sports journalism and broadcast reporting, Treze brings cultural insight and on-the-ground knowledge of South American racing. With credentials in communications and journalism, Treze connects today’s Formula 1 with the enduring legacy of Ayrton Senna.
