Max Verstappen has sent an ominous message to Red Bull as Yuki Tsunoda continues to struggle in the 2025 Formula 1 season, stating his team-mate is “not a pancake”.
Tsunoda has so far struggled to get to grips with the troublesome RB21, something that plagued Liam Lawson, who was sent back to its satellite squad Racing Bulls after just two races.
After four years and two races with the sister team, Tsunoda finally got his big break with the main squad, switching places with the Kiwi from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards.
In that time, Tsunoda has found it hard to match Verstappen, though, and despite being able to outperform Lawson in the car, the European triple-header was a tough one to take.
A heavy crash in qualifying at Imola set the tone, and despite a fine recovery drive to 10th place, it has been all the more downhill since, having failed to score in both Monaco and Spain, having failed to reach Q2 in the latter purely on pace.
The second Red Bull seat has been somewhat of a poisoned chalice, with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon the initial Toro Rosso alumni to fail, and with Sergio Perez being an outsider, as it were, to succeed as a good number two to Verstappen, he too was to follow out the door.
Red Bull’s second driver troubles have not gone unnoticed with Verstappen, who has publicly observed the issue.
“Of course it’s been going on for a long time. Maybe that’s also a sign,” he said.
When asked what it is a sign of, he replied: “You can answer that yourself.”
Verstappen leaps to Tsunoda defence
Verstappen has been negative about the RB21 himself, but has managed to take two victories in it so far this season, perhaps a sign of just how good he can be, even in an uncompetitive car.
“We just lack a bit of grip,” Verstappen told media including Motorsport Week after the Spanish Grand Prix.
“The overall performance just isn’t there. And we know that. You just have to accept it.”
It certainly echoes the words of Tsunoda, who said that there is a “core limitation” with the car.
Naturally, there is now pressure on Tsunoda to turn things around, given Red Bull’s high standards, but Verstappen was quick to defend his team-mate, using a Dutch colloquialism for a failure as part of his assertion of the situation.
“He’s not a pancake, right?” he said. “When he was in those Racing Bulls, he always looked good compared to Hadjar. But yeah, it is what it is.”
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