Red Bull react to ‘horrible race’ with Tsunoda lapped twice in Austria

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner had few words of encouragement for Yuki Tsunoda after the Austrian Grand Prix.

Rock bottom of the Austrian Grand Prix classification – and the only driver to be lapped twice at the Red Bull Ring – Tsunoda suffered a bruising race weekend, that true for Red Bull in general with Max Verstappen having been eliminated from the race by Kimi Antonelli.

Red Bull questioning Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda ‘big delta’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Verstappen started P7 in Austria having been forced to abort his final Q3 lap as Pierre Gasly spun at the final corner. His luck continued to be out on race day as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli punted him into retirement at Turn 3, but while Verstappen had a rough weekend, it arguably paled in comparison to Tsunoda’s.

While the gap to Verstappen was only a quarter of a second for Tsunoda after Q1, that was not enough to see the Japanese driver continue in qualifying, marking a third Q1 exit in his last five race weekends.

Running towards the back on race day, Tsunoda was hit with a 10-second penalty for whacking Alpine’s Franco Colapinto into a spin, an incident for which Tsunoda apologised, as he limped to P16, the last of the finishers, and the only driver two laps behind as McLaren’s Lando Norris took an impressive win.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was not impressed.

“Yuki had a horrible race,” Horner told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“Again, it started to go wrong for him in Q1 yesterday. His first run in Q1 was fine. Second run, he made a mistake at Turn 1 and then qualified badly, and then was running in traffic, unable to pass, then picks up a penalty, and it just compounds things.

“So of course, we’ll look to see how we can support him, but there’s a big delta between the two cars.”

F1 2025 head-to-head standings after the Austrian GP

? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Sergio Perez departed Red Bull after the 2024 season following a complete collapse in form, with neither Liam Lawson nor Tsunoda thus far succeeding in bringing that second Red Bull closer to Verstappen’s level, as the seat continues to prove a poisoned chalice.

Verstappen’s consistency is remarkable, as his elimination in Austria brought a 31-race points-scoring streak to a close, Tsunoda’s woes meaning Red Bull concluded their home race with zero points scored.

“Of course, internally, we ask all of those questions that, no doubt, you ask in terms of, why,” said Horner on that problematic second Red Bull seat.

“Obviously, the car has evolved over years in a specific direction, but, we’ll see if we can help Yuki and rebuild his confidence in Silverstone.”

Tsunoda has slipped to P17 in the Drivers’ Championship, dropping him behind Lawson, who he replaced at Red Bull after two rounds of the F1 2025 season.

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