Yuki Tsunoda explains Red Bull F1 struggles in Hungary qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda said Red Bull’s 2025 Formula 1 car was lacking the grip that it usually has after he suffered another Q1 exit at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Despite lapping just tenth-and-a-half slower than Max Verstappen - the closest he has been to his teammate this year - Tsunoda was knocked out in Q1 and is set to start Sunday’s race from 16th on the grid.

Red Bull has been slow all weekend at the Hungaroring, with even Verstappen recording his worst qualifying finish of the year in eighth after a tough run in practice.

Tsunoda blamed the car’s lack of grip for its struggles in Budapest and admitted that a messy final practice session further compromised Red Bull’s qualifying performance.

“Overall, this weekend we struggled as a team,” he told F1.com. “Even in that situation, I wanted to try to maximise performance. But [we are] just slow. 

“Also, FP3 preparation wasn’t good at all, which was in our control completely and we completely missed that. Especially fighting like [in] this tight session, it all counts. It can happen like that.”

Tsunoda missed out the Q2 by just 0.024s to Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and his margin to pacesetter Oscar Piastri was just 0.688s in the opening segment of qualifying.

Asked if the RB21 has been difficult to drive, he replied: "It’s just sliding around. Pretty much that’s it. 

“The grip that we normally should get is not there. Probably something we are missing completely. That is the main thing that we are missing. We tried to find that in the race week but unfortunately we couldn’t.”