The Red Bull driver could not better P20 in Spanish GP qualifying
Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles to make an impression at Red Bull Racing continued in Barcelona as he qualified in a disastrous P20 on a day when team mate Max Verstappen was pushing the McLarens in third.
Tsunoda noted after Friday practice that he didn’t know why he was slow, and after Q1 he told the team that he’d done a “clean lap”, which made his lack of pace even more of a mystery.
It’s not what he needed after his huge Q1 crash in Imola (where he at least had a good run to 10th in the race) and a lowly 17th place – with a strategy that didn’t play out – in Monaco.
“Straight away from FP1 first push I said on the radio that’s something feels not right,” he said when I asked about his session. “And it’s not really matching to my expectation of how I feel in a car in terms of grip level overall.
“And obviously we tried to solve that issue throughout the week, but just especially when you’re limited by overall grip, whatever we changed setups, it just made a bit of like plaster feeling, it’s not able to cure the core limitation, which I had. So it’s a shame.”
Tsunoda insisted that the team had tried everything to resolve his issues.
“I don’t think it’s set up, because to be honest, we tried almost every setup,” he said. “There’s obviously some preference a bit there and there, and I think I’m still convinced that we were able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance.
“And like I said, car balance itself is not bad. And at least also my confidence was there. The lap in qualifying on both tyres, especially last push, was pretty good. So doesn’t really stack up with my results, and with the pace I’m having.”
Although it didn’t show in the results there were times over the Monaco weekend where despite a tricky car he showed good pace, and he concedes that he’s slipped back.
“Until previous Grand Prix, especially until Monaco, I was having good progress throughout and last Grand Prix, some sessions I was matching or faster than Max, and suddenly it drops like hell.
“And whatever I do, every lap, even like a long run was good example, just whatever I do, nothing happens.
“And it feels like this car is eating the tyres like hell, having degradation massively. It doesn’t really stack up. I think the core limitation is still there, and I don’t know what it is, and I can’t really have any answer for that.
“The previous Grands Prix the team were same page with me, how I think, as well I think pace was really there. Monaco qualifying was a shame, with the red flag and everything.
“But at least, I’ve shown pace and I heard multiple times from the team that it’s been a while that the second driver has been able to match Max, or being faster.
“So they were happy, but this Grand Prix somehow it just drops massively for whatever reason, and I’m not able to show my performance, which is a shame. And yeah, it’s something that for this Grand Prix is something I feel really, really strange. A mystery.”
The outdated Red Bull tunnel is at the heart of the team’s struggles with the RB21
The Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team’s struggles in 2025 were perfectly encapsulated by the wild swing in form from Suzuka to Sakhir.
In Japan Max Verstappen took pole and scored a virtuoso win by staying ahead of the McLarens for the duration. Just a week later in Bahrain he started seventh and finished sixth after struggling throughout with balance problems and brake issues.
The difference was that on the first occasion team and driver found something akin to the sweet spot for the reluctant RB21 after trying every option. In contrast in Bahrain they didn’t hit the target, and a poor performance was the outcome.
“I think it shows the margins and the windows that you have to work within,” team boss Christian Horner said on Sunday evening.
“We’ve been struggling with two issues this weekend, one a braking issue, and secondly, just an imbalance. And when you have that, then tyre deg, etcetera, everything looks worse.
“On top of that, we’ve had a horrible day where we had what looks like a wiring loom issue in the pit gantry causing there to be a problem with the traffic light.
“So all-in-all to actually come away with a sixth place and limit it to an eight-point deficit to Lando [Norris] with the challenges that we’ve had… We need to leave here obviously focussed on what we can sort out for Jeddah in five days’ time.”
There really was nowhere to hide for Horner, with the pit stop delays – for different reasons – adding to the woes.
“It was a bad weekend for the team,” he said. “Nothing went our way from the start of the race. We didn’t get off the line cleanly, and pit stops didn’t work well for us today, and the track temperatures got very high.
“Certainly the tyre deg, if you’ve got a well-balanced car, the whole thing just comes together that much easier.
“But it’s a 24-race championship. We’re eight points behind in the drivers’ championship, and we know we need to make progress very quickly.
“So it was important today to score the most points, and he fought for, every point that he could in a difficult car today. It’s how they add up at the end of the year. That’s important.”
The brake issue came out of the blue, and just added to Verstappen’s frustration.
“He’s not getting any bite or feel from the pedal,” said Horner. “And of course, it’s such an important tool that gives the driver so much feedback that then on top of that your entries end up compromised, you’re taking too much speed in. It creates its own issues. We need to get to the bottom that pretty quickly.”
However it’s the struggle to find a workable balance that is the consistent problem with RB21.
Something isn’t correlating between the team’s simulations and what happens when the car takes to the track on Fridays, and that’s what is giving the engineers such a headache from the start of each event.
They managed to paper over the cracks in Suzuka, but there was nowhere to hide last weekend.
“Ultimately you can mask it a little through setup, and we were able to achieve that last weekend in in Suzuka,” said Horner. “But I think this race has exposed some pitfalls that obviously, very clearly, we have, and that we need to get on top of very quickly.
“And I think we understand where the issues are. It’s introducing the solutions that obviously takes a little more time.”
Elaborating on where it’s going wrong he added: “It’s the entry phase to mid-corner that needs addressing, and giving him the ability and grip and confidence that it takes to carry speed into entry of corners. Now, that’s fundamentally an aero issue that we need to be able to give him that grip.
“We need to just again unpick it. I think that you get a big balance shift. And how these cars are working with the back or front wings and so on. So it’s unpicking all of that. Basically it’s calming the car down.”
At the heart of the problem is Red Bull’s infamously old wind tunnel. It’s been good enough to create cars that have won multiple World Championships down the years, but the current machines are super sensitive, and even the best state-of-the-art tunnels have trouble keeping up with the real world.
Throw in the Red Bull tunnel’s well-known sensitivity to extremes of low and high ambient temperatures, and things start to get tricky.
“The problems are understood,” said Horner. “The problem is that the solutions with what we see in within our tools, compared to what we’re seeing on track at the moment, aren’t correlating. And I think that’s what we need to get to the bottom of.
“Why can we not see within our tools what we’re seeing on the circuit? And when you end up with a disconnect like that, you have to obviously unpick it.
“We’ve got a strong technical team that has produced some amazing cars over the last few years, and I’m confident that they’ll get to the bottom of this issue.
“Literally, the tool isn’t replicating with what we’re seeing on the track. And then at that point it’s like telling the time on two different watches.”
He added: “Primarily the wind tunnel has driven us in a direction that isn’t replicating what we’re seeing on track.
“Then you end up with a mish-mash between what your tools are telling you, and what the track data is. Obviously now, as we’re accumulating track data, it’s the track data that’s driving the solutions.”
The team is currently developing the 2026 model in the old tunnel as well as trying to firefight with this year’s car. It will have to wait for the RB23 in 2027 before the brand new tunnel under construction in Milton Keynes starts to have an impact.
Given the current struggles you might think there would be some concerns about getting it right for the new era. However, the intriguing aspect is that Horner insists that the tunnel works well with the sort of major gains that are being made as the team explores the 2026 rules.
It’s with the fine detail at the margins of the last blast of the current rules that things get a little fuzzy, especially with how the front end of the car behaves.
“The problem that we have is that we’re at the end of a set of regulations, where the gains are very, very marginal,” noted Horner. “And I think we’re seeing some of the shortcomings in our current tunnel that struggles in that area.
“If you’re not into the final few points of downforce, when you’re making significant steps, the tunnel and the tool that we have is, as it’s proved before, more than capable for those big incremental gains.
“You need to fix or understand the issues and the limitations you have because inevitably, you will get to that point in the future. We have a new tunnel coming online for ’27, but we have the current tool certainly for another 18 months or so.”
There’s one other aspect to the current struggles. It’s almost a year since Adrian Newey left the team – would Red Bull now be better off if he’d still in place with the kind of holistic overview that served him and the team so well over the decades? We can only guess…
[If you are an outlet that use content like the above please get in touch as I am available for work!]
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that Red Bull has swapped Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson because it has a “duty of care to protect and develop” the Kiwi driver after his difficult start to 2025.
After just two races with the senior team Lawson returns to the VCARB team for whom he did 11 races across the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Tsunoda has been parachuted into the RBR team for his home race at Suzuka after the team exercised what it termed a “driver rotation.”
The Japanese driver has just a week to prepare for his debut with the team having done a day in the RB20 at the Abu test in December
“It has been difficult to see Liam struggle with the RB21 at the first two races and as a result we have collectively taken the decision to make an early switch,” said Horner.
“We came into the 2025 season, with two ambitions, to retain the World Drivers’ Championship and to reclaim the World Constructors’ title and this is a purely sporting decision. We acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21 and Yuki’s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.
“We welcome him to the team and are looking forward to seeing him behind the wheel of the RB21. We have a duty of care to protect and develop Liam and together, we see that after such a difficult start, it makes sense to act quickly so Liam can gain experience, as he continues his F1 career with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, an environment and a team he knows very well.”
Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies made it clear that he was pleased to see Tsunoda get a chance.
“We’re incredibly proud of Yuki earning his well-deserved move to Oracle Red Bull Racing,” he said. “His progress last year, and more recently from the very start of 2025, has been nothing less than sensational. Personally, and collectively, it has been an immense privilege to witness those progresses for all of us in Faenza and in Milton Keynes.
“Yuki’s energy and positivity has lightened up every corner of our factories and of our garage and he will always be a Racing Bull! We wish him all the success he deserves at ORBR. Everyone here at VCARB is looking forward to working hard with Liam to give him the best environment possible for him to shine in our car and to express the talent we all know he has.
“He fit in so well last year, and we cannot wait to challenge ourselves and grow as a team. With Isack having started so strongly with us already, we know we have a young and strong lineup.”
Andy Cowell has taken over the team principal role
The Aston Martin Formula 1 operation has announced a major restructure that sees CEO Andy Cowell assume the role of team principal as previous incumbent Mike Krack moves into a new role.
The changes reflect the ongoing efforts by owner Lawrence Stroll to find the ideal organisation after a string of high-profile hirings ahead of the arrival of Adrian Newey.
Last year the team finished a distant fifth in the World Championship and it was evident that Stroll would make changes over the winter.
The team has split its trackside and factory operations “for clarity of leadership and as part of a shift to a flatter structure” with their respective bosses reporting to Cowell.
Krack has now been given the title of chief trackside officer, while the incoming Enrico Cardile will be chief technical officer.
Meanwhile performance director Tom McCullough has been moved into an unspecified job where he will “play a critical role in the expansion of the team’s broader range of racing categories.”
He follows Andy Green and Dan Fallows as the latest key player to be moved out of the F1 programme.
Former HPP boss Cowell was announced as the future CEO in July, and officially started the job on October 1.
He was ostensibly hired to replace then CEO erstwhile Martin Whitmarsh, who played a key role behind the scenes as the Silverstone operation was expanded.
However, Whitmarsh never had the team principal title, and he kept a low profile at the track and with the media.
“I have spent the last three months understanding and assessing our performance,” said Cowell. “And I’ve been incredibly impressed by the dedication, commitment and hard work of this team.
“With the completion of the AMR Technology Campus and our transition in 2026 to a full works team, alongside our strategic partners Honda and Aramco, we are on a journey to becoming a championship-winning team. These organisational changes are a natural evolution of the multi-year plans that we have scheduled to make and I’m incredibly excited about the future.”
Lawson’s promotion has finally been confirmed. Pic: @tinnekephotography
Red Bull Racing has finally confirmed that Liam Lawson will replace Sergio Perez and partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing in 2025.
The New Zealander has been the obvious candidate since Daniel Ricciardo was dropped from RB after the Singapore GP and Lawson was given what was in effect a six-race audition for the job at the main team.
He has been chosen over Yuki Tsunoda, despite the Japanese driver having far greater experience. Lawson has started 11 races over his two part-seasons with the Faenza team.
Team boss Christian Horner made it clear that Lawson’s VCARB outings had played a key role.
“Liam’s performances over the course of his two stints with Visa Cash App Racing Bulls have demonstrated that he’s not only capable of delivering strong results but that he’s also a real racer, not afraid to mix it with the best and come out on top,” he said.
“His arrival continues the team’s long history of promoting from within the Red Bull junior programme and he follows in the footsteps of championship and race-winning drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and of course, Max Verstappen.
“There’s no doubt that racing alongside Max, a four-time champion and undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers ever seen in F1, is a daunting task, but I’m sure Liam can rise to that challenge and deliver some outstanding results for us next year.”
Lawson said: “To be announced as an Oracle Red Bull Racing driver is a lifelong dream for me, this is something I’ve wanted and worked towards since I was eight years old,” he said.
“It’s been an incredible journey so far. I want to say a massive thank you to the whole team at VCARB for their support, the last six races have played a huge part in my preparation for this next step.
“I also want to thank, Christian, Helmut [Marko] and the whole Red Bull family for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. I am super excited to work alongside Max and learn from a World Champion, I have no doubt I will learn from his expertise. I can’t wait to get going!”
Christian Horner admits that extending Sergio Perez’s Red Bull Racing deal for two years early in the season “obviously didn’t work.”
Perez’s new contract was announced on June 4 after a run of podiums early in the season, but immediately after a first lap accident in Monaco that in retrospect signalled a downturn in his fortunes.
At the time the team was in some turmoil and there were question marks over Max Verstappen’s future.
Horner that signing Perez brought continuity and stability, and it was widely interpreted that it was about keeping Verstappen onside with a team mate that he knew well.
However since then Perez has struggled and it’s widely expected that he won’t continue in 2025 – in which case the team is likely to have to pay a hefty price for him not to race.
Asked by this writer if he had any regrets about concluding the deal so early Horner rather than keeping the team’s options open admitted that it hadn’t worked.
“Obviously, at the time Sergio was performing extremely well,” he said. “I think he had, what, four podiums in the first five races?
“And in order to settle his mind and extend that run of form for the rest of the season, we elected to go early – which obviously didn’t work.
“That’s just life sometimes. And I think Checo, you have to look beyond this year for the contribution he’s made to our team. He’s been a great team player. He’s a great person. He’s extremely popular within the team.
“He’s worked very hard over the four years that he’s been with us, and he’s played a vital role in the constructors’ championships that we’ve won, the five Grand Prix victories that he had in our car, it’s been the most successful pairing that we’ve ever had, finishing first and second in the drivers’ championship, last year.
“So I think nobody more is frustrated with the results than Checo, from his own high standards. And that’s obviously been painful for him, for the team, and we’ve worked tremendously hard to try and support him, and we’ll continue to do so all the way up until the chequered flag on Sunday, where hopefully he can get a good result at the final race of the year.”
Horner hinted that there’s a scenario where Perez himself decides to stop.
“There’s huge respect for Checo within the team, and nobody likes to see him struggling like the way he has,” he said. “And we’ll sit down and discuss things after the season.
“We’ve got two talented drivers in VCARB, so but until the situation is clear with Sergio, what he wants to do, everything else is purely speculation.”
Toto Wolff has made clear his feeling about Christian Horner…
Toto Wolff has slammed Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner in the wake of the escalation of the war of words between their drivers, George Russell and Ma Verstappen.
Wolff was left fuming in Qatar after Horner suggested that Russell had been “quite hysterical” in the stewards hearing that led a penalty for his driver.
In Abu Dhabi on Thursday Wolff suggested that Horner was “weak” and was “falling short in his role”, in effect for not telling Verstappen that he might be two sides to the story.
“I think as a team principal It’s important to be a sparring partner for your drivers,” he said. “And that means explaining that things can be more nuanced. Statements that are absolutistic, thinking that everything is either right, 100% right or 100% wrong, it’s just something you I think you need to explain. Think more nuanced, not depending from your perception and your perspective.
“You need to allow for something to be 51/49 you need to allow it to be 70/30, so there’s always another side. And maybe when you look at it that way, and you explain it to your drivers and to your team, you come to the conclusion that there is truth on both sides. If you don’t do that, you’re falling short of your role, It’s just weak.
“Why does he feel entitled to comment about my driver? How does that come? But you know, thinking about it, yapping little terror. Always something to say.”
He made it clear that the hysterical comment had particularly riled him.
“There is a thing between drivers, and this is George and Max, and I don’t want to get involved in that,” he said. “But if the other team principal calls George hysteric, this is where he crosses the line for me.”
now his forte for sure, is not intellectually psychoanalysis. That’s quite a word. How dare you? How dare you comment on the state of mind of my driver.”
Verstappen secured number four in style Picture: @tinnekephotography
Max Verstappen says that he’s particularly proud of his 2024 Formula 1 World Championship title because Red Bull didn’t have the fastest car for “70% of the season.”
Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive title with fifth place in the Las Vegas GP, behind the four cars of Mercedes and Ferrari. Crucially he finished ahead of his last remaining title rival, Lando Norris.
Verstappen admitted that a lot had to fall into place to win four in a row.
“It sounds very good,” he said when asked about being a four-time champion. “Yeah, something that when you grow up racing and you see all these stats of some legendary drivers and you’re like, ‘That’s very impressive, and I hope one day that I can even just be on the podium, win a race, maybe win a championship.’
“It’s already hard enough to win one. Of course, then you also need a bit of luck to be in the right team situation to maybe win more. But yeah, luckily we did that. But I think that was more like the first three championships.
“Now this year, we hit the ground running well, but then we had a lot of tough races. And that is something I’m very proud of, in those tough races where we were definitely not the fastest car, we kept it together as a team.
“We worked very hard back at the factory as well, remained calm, most of the times. And we barely made any mistakes. We really maximised or even overperformed in some places.
“Plus, our opposition also in a few places definitely didn’t grab the points that they should have. And all those things, of course, matter at the end of the day when you fight for a championship.”
Verstappen agreed with Christian Horner’s assessment that this was his best championship win to date.
“I think so, too,” he said. “I mean, last year, I had a dominant car, but I always felt that not everyone appreciated what we achieved as a team, winning 10 in a row. Of course, our car was dominant, but it wasn’t as dominant, I think, as people thought it was.
“That’s for sure my best season [2023] I will always look back at, because even in places where maybe we didn’t have the perfect set-up, we were still capable, because in the race, our car was always quite strong, to win races.
“But I’m also very proud of this season because for most of the season, I would say for 70% of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but actually we still extended our lead. So that is definitely something that I’m very proud of.”
Verstappen praised his team for the role they played in winning a fourth title in difficult circumstances.
“You always have to believe in yourself, but at the end of the day, it’s a lot of people that have to come together and a lot of things that have to come together with the car,” he said.
“Especially in the middle of the season, where we had a lot of issues where we didn’t really understand what was going on. But then I’m also very happy and I’m proud of how the team reacted, responded, and turned it around a bit.
“At one point, it seemed like we were a little bit lost, but at least now it feels like it’s all a bit more normal. Of course, here in Vegas, I feel like it’s a very one-off event where it’s very cold and the track layout is also quite special.
“But in general, I do think that since Austin, we have turned it around a little bit and we’re a bit more in that fight again. And yeah, all credit to the team for that. Of course, I know that it’s been quite a tough season for us overall, also the constructors’, but at least we still won one championship.”
Perez says his focus is on helping the team to improve
Sergio Perez remains coy on talk about his future at Red Bull Racing after his difficult recent run, putting the focus on the Milton Keynes Formula 1 team and saying “we all want to do better.”
Perez has been in the spotlight following a frustrating home race in Mexico City, after which team boss Christian Horner stressed that he has to get results and that “there comes a time when difficult decisions have to be made.”
Perez is contracted to the team for 2025-’26, and he has always insisted that there are no doubts about his future.
Asked by this writer about Horner’s comments Perez simply said that the team as a whole needs to improve.
“It’s all linked and all related to us being strong,” he said. “We want to get back together as a team. I think that’s the main priority, for the team, and it’s where the main focus is.
“We are not happy where the pace is at the moment. And we all want to do better. Simple as that.”
Asked if he’d been set any targets over the last four races he said: “Well, basically, I just want to maximise the potential. Last weekend we lost some good points, and here I really hope that we have a shot to the podium.
“Simple as that. I am just trying to work together with the team to improve the car, and just be more competitive.”
He added: “I think we are working flat out. We have engineers going back to Milton Keynes in between races.
“Everyone is pushing flat out to understand where the pace has gone. I think the pace obviously in Mexico was disappointing, and I think we understand a lot of the reasons. So I really hope that here we can put it together as a team and be in the mix.”
Perez is still waiting for the floor upgrade that Max Verstappen received in Austin.
“No, we don’t have it at the moment,” he said. “And yeah, hopefully for Vegas now that there will be a little bit more time I will have it.
“There’s something in it. Also a bit of weight. We’re cutting a little bit of weight and so on. It’s not ideal, but obviously the team is doing the best they can. We’ve been affected also with so many incidents for now. So yeah, the team is pushing flat out.”
Perez also downplayed the critical comments he made about Liam Lawson following their costly collision in the Mexican race.
“For me, this is obviously in the heat of the moment,” he said. “Now, there’s been a little bit of time to digest.
And yeah, I think you know, all I can say that the race was looking great for both of us at the time, being on the alternative strategy, it was the start of the race, there was a big opportunity, and I think there was no need to come together.”
Perez said that the Red Bull management backed his view that Lawson was at fault.
“We viewed it the same way,” he said. “I think there was no need to have the contact, whatsoever. I think the race for both cars was looking great. And yeah, simply was there was no need to come together.
“Like I say, I think we were all aligned on it. We all felt similar. We lost a lot of points for us, because I think at the time, where you look where you see where the Piastri finished, and he was much further away, we were on the alternative strategy.
“We were making progress. We looked pretty quick at the time, we definitely lost important points, and at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.”
The Lawson v Perez battle became a little emotional last weekend…
Sergio Perez says that his fellow Red Bull driver Liam Lawson is “not showing the right attitude” after the pair clashed in the Formula 1 Mexico City GP.
Perez started from a lowly 18th on the grid, and his weekend was hampered further when he received a five-second penalty for being in front of his grid box at the start.
He was making progress through the field when he tangled with the RB of Lawson, who is widely tipped to replace him at Red Bull Racing at some stage.
Perez’s car suffered floor and sidepod damage in the incident, and he eventually finished 17th, while Lawson was 16th after a later incident with Franco Colapinto.
A frustrated Perez pointed out that Lawson had also upset Fernando Alonso in the Austin sprint a week earlier.
“It was looking good,” said Perez when asked about the incident. “We were already up to P10, and then he was outside the track and just came straight like if there was no car. I think he could have avoided the incident, but he just went back.
“Luckily, I saw him, and I opened the room. Otherwise it would have been a massive crash. There was no need, he damaged both of our races.
“I think it was just a little bit too much, but I don’t think his fault. He’s not getting any penalties as well. He did the same with Fernando, and with Franco in the end. There are no penalties, so none of his fault as well.”
Perez didn’t hold back when asked further about Lawson.
“I don’t have any relationship with him,” he said. “I think the way he has come to F1, I don’t think has the right attitude for it.
“He needs to be a bit more humble, when a two-time world champion was saying things last weekend, he completely ignored him.
“It’s like when you come to F1, you’re obviously very, very hungry and so on. But you have to be as well respectful off-track and on-track.
“I don’t think he’s showing the right attitude to show a good case for himself, because I think he’s a great driver, and I hope for him that he can step back and learn from this.”
Expanding on the theme he added: “You see these youngsters, obviously very hungry for it, and they’re really passionate, and it’s great to see. They have a great talent, but I’m just talking about Lawson in this regard.
“In his two first Grands Prix he has had too many incidents. And I think there will be a point where, where it can cost him too much, like he did this weekend.
“And are you seeing that he has to have the right attitude to say, I’m overdoing it a little bit, I will step back, and start again.
“And it’s all the learning you have to do as a youngster, because if you don’t learn from your mistakes, F1 is a brutal world out there, and he might not continue.”
Adam Cooper F1 