Red Bull has publicly apologised to Yuki Tsunoda after a tyre pressure set-up blunder led to his sixth Q1 elimination of 2025 at Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Tsuonda has been on the back foot all weekend in Las Vegas, struggling during the two Thursday sessions, and only managing 17th in final practice before qualifying.
As Q1 got underway under a torrential downpour, his RB21 slipped and slid in the treacherous conditions, the car lacking grip as it navigated the standing water soaking the circuit.
Although avoiding the barriers, 19th was the Japanese driver’s reward at the end of Q1, leaving him with a mammoth task to finish in the points.
But Tsunoda indicated after qualifying there was more to his latest Q1 exit than meets the eye, complaining of a crippling lack of grip on a track already offering precious little.
“Well, I had a yellow flag to be honest in my lap, so that didn’t help. But also at the same time, the grip level I had was very poor,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Yeah, very rare. We didn’t expect to use the extreme tyres. I don’t know, because last time I wore extreme was I guess in Brazil [2024], and I was one second faster than anyone else, and suddenly I’m just three seconds off compared to any other drivers.
“Well, clearly I was missing something, because I was literally driving on ice, so I don’t know what’s happening.”
A unforced team error turns challenging weekend into a nightmare
Tsuonda indicated that no data on driving the Las Vegas circuit in wet conditions also played a part in his torrid outing, calling the conditions the worst he’s driven.
“For me, yeah”, he bemoaned. “I don’t know. For me, I was suddenly really slow and I didn’t have grip, so I’ll have to see why.
“Yeah, the condition was very tricky. I guess this, I don’t know if this specific Vegas tarmac or whatever is just creating this sickness or whatever, but it was not easy at all.”
Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies confirmed that the team had made a critical issue with Tsunoda’s tyre pressures, making an already difficult situation almost impossible.
“We made quite big mistakes with his tyre pressures,” he admitted.
“These things obviously should not happen. Apologies to Yuki, he was in good rhythm all weekend and it’s really painful to take this chance away from him.
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