Red Bull boss Christian Horner has claimed the team’s Formula 1 car is “not that difficult” to drive as Yuki Tsunoda’s woes continued at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Tsunoda’s Red Bull career spiralled to a new low at the Red Bull Ring as he trailed home two laps down as the final classified runner at the team’s home race.
Drafted in alongside Max Verstappen at the third round, the Honda-backed driver has only been able to score four points for the Milton Keynes-based squad.
Despite lapping within three-tenths of Verstappen in Q1, Tsunoda was unable to progress through to the next session and started the race down in 18th position.
An incident with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto at Turn 4 earned him a 10-second penalty that curtailed his hopes of recovering to the points as he trailed home in 16th.
“With Yuki, obviously it’s difficult to make progress from starting where he did on the grid and then picking up a penalty as well with Colapinto,” Horner evaluated.
“So a horrible race for him today as well. It’s frustrating but we’ll move on quickly to Silverstone.”
The consensus in the paddock suggests that the RB21 is inherently a tricky car to drive, further augmenting Tsunoda’s dwindling performances.
However, Horner is adamant that there are underlying issues greater than the car’s fundamental design philosophy that are making life tough for the 25-year-old.
“The car is a car that’s evolved over the years around the development path that we’ve taken,” he explained.
“It isn’t an easy car to drive, but it’s not that difficult either. So we’ll work with him and hopefully it’ll make a step up in Silverstone.”
Red Bull committed to supporting Tsunoda
The story of Red Bull’s infamous revolving door second race-seat picked up again two rounds into the 2025 season when Liam Lawson was demoted.
And although he has not been able to match his team-mate’s outright pace, Tsunoda has lapped closer to the Dutchman’s times compared to Lawson.
This was evident throughout all three one-hour practice sessions in Spielberg, but Tsunoda’s weekend inexplicably fell apart when it mattered once again.
“We need to understand with Yuki what’s gone wrong because, certainly [in second and third practice] he was looking okay,” conceded Horner.
“In qualifying, it seemed to fall apart for him. Then when you’re out of position, you’re down the pack like that, when it’s so tight he’s struggling for confidence.”
Horner also insinuated that Tsunoda’s case will be dealt with more patience than Lawson’s was, with the team committed to turning around his fortunes as the season progresses.
“But we’ll work with him, we’ll try and help him through it,” he concluded.
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