{"id":147650,"date":"2025-05-31T20:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T20:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147650\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T20:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T20:17:09","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-left-baffled-after-qualifying-last-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147650\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda left baffled after qualifying last in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>While Max Verstappen will start on the second row of the grid for the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, team-mate Yuki Tsunoda failed to find the speed for a position better than 20th.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a result that has prompted renewed concerns about his status at the team \u2014 and whether or not he\u2019d rather head back to Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>Yuki Tsunoda denies missing Racing Bulls after dismal Spain qualifying<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n<p>Since being promoted from Racing Bulls to Red Bull Racing ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/driver\/yuki-tsunoda\/results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> has struggled.<\/p>\n<p>His best starting position of the F1 2025 campaign came at the season opener, where he qualified fifth behind the wheel of his Racing Bulls machine. Since then, his highest starting position has been eighth.<\/p>\n<p>And his finishing positions have left a lot to be desired. While he\u2019s taken home points in three races, he\u2019s added only seven to Red Bull\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n<p>At the moment, he sits 13th in the championship while Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen is third overall. Back at Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar has scored a total of 15 points for 10th in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>And once again, Tsunoda will be starting from the very back of the grid come Sunday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/f1-races\/spanish-grand-prix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spanish Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>F1 contracts: Made to be broken?<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/f1-2025-driver-contract-expiry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Revealed: The six drivers out of contract at the end of the F1 2025 season<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/f1-2026-driver-line-up-confirmed-grid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">F1 2026 driver line-up: Lewis Hamilton and other drivers already confirmed for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, after being eliminated from the session, Tsunoda sounded perplexed as to why his performance was so lacking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStraightaway from FP1, I said already that something feels not right,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think set-up because to be honest, we try almost every set-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s obviously some preference between there and there, but I\u2019m still convinced that we\u2019re able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance \u2014 and like I said, car balance itself is not bad, and my confidence was there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lap in qualifying in both tyres, especially last push, was pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoesn\u2019t really stack up with the results, the pace I\u2019m having.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the radio, Tsunoda communicated to the team that he felt he\u2019d had a clean lap in Q1. The fact that it was only good enough for 20th was a shock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever I do, nothing happens and feels like this car is eating the tyres like hell, having degradation massively. It really stacks up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think think the core limitations, they\u2019re there, and I don\u2019t know what it is. I can\u2019t really have any answer for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Tsunoda has been outperformed by at least one Racing Bulls car in all but two of the six races he\u2019s contested with Red Bull. It certainly begs the question: Does Tsunoda miss the Racing Bulls team?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot at all,\u201d he said in response to the question from PlanetF1.com.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I\u2019m happy with the Red Bull, obviously. Glad to see that Racing Bulls are, you know, having a good progression since last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing to Red Bull was a challenge, but still, like I said, I was pretty happy with the pace, but just this Grand Prix was a bit strange.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still believe that I can do something better and something that no one is expecting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very very happy to see they\u2019re performing, but at the same time, I\u2019m really focusing now to Red Bull to how I can work it better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda has maintained the attitude of a driver with a much more predictable car in saying he\u2019s happy with Red Bull, but he\u2019ll be hoping for a surprise sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of this weekend, Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner admitted to Bild that \u201cYuki has the hardest job in the world: Being Max\u2019s teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But that won\u2019t be enough to guarantee a spot on the team for him come 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a personal level, Yuki fits in perfectly with the team,\u201d Horner explained. \u201cHe\u2019s a good guy who contributes well to the garage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if he wants to be considered for next year, he needs to keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 20th place start certainly won\u2019t be the \u2018improvement\u2019 that Horner was asking for.<\/p>\n<p>Read next:\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/christian-horner-oscar-piastri-contract-yuki-tsunoda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Horner \u2018respects\u2019 Piastri situation as Tsunoda receives F1 2026 target<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Max Verstappen will start on the second row of the grid for the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,225,12,226,104,27196,860],"class_list":{"0":"post-147650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-red-bull","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-spanish-grand-prix","15":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114604293744853632","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}