Red Bull deliver assessment on Yuki Tsunoda’s Singapore shocker
What Red Bull made of a difficult weekend in Singapore for Yuki Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda could not build on his encouraging Baku weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Having enjoyed a breakthrough by scoring both his best qualifying and race result since joining Red Bull with sixth in Azerbaijan, Tsunoda hoped it would mark a turning point in his challenging 2025 season.
But the Japanese driver, who appears destined to lose his Red Bull seat to Isack Hadjar for 2026, failed to follow that up with another strong weekend in Singapore.
Tsunoda ended up a disappointing 15th in qualifying, which effectively ruined his weekend.
“It was not a good Saturday for Yuki," Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said. "I think honestly, on Friday, personally, I was satisfied with the work he has done on Friday.
“It was not looking spectacular on page one, but looking at every single lap, I think it was at the right level on Friday, then Saturday was poor, we need to work with him to understand what derailed it.”
Tsunoda faced an uphill battle to recover to the points but made his life even harder when he lost ground with a poor start in Sunday’s grand prix
"The first lap was certainly shocking, but from that point onward I think he has done a very decent race, I think he came back from P18 to P12 or P11, with a very decent pace," Mekies added.
“So we had a very poor Saturday, it's costing us the weekend and a few points, and we'll work with him to improve together.”
Yuki Tsunoda bemoans ‘worst start of my life’
Tsunoda lamented the start as the “worst” of his life.
He would go on to finish 12th behind Hadjar, who was nursing an engine problem aboard his Racing Bulls, and was even lapped by Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.
“It definitely was the worst start or the first lap ever in my life,” he explained. “I can't still believe what happened in the first lap. Every place I tried to go, every corner in the first lap, I was literally covered or blocked by someone.
"I just didn't have any space to go. I lost so much position in the first lap. It was definitely the worst start ever.
"I don't know what I should have done there. I'm sure there's something I could have done better. That for sure made my life very hard afterwards. To be honest, the pace was one of the best I've had in my Red Bull career so far. It's a shame what I had there."
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