Yuki Tsunoda had damage in F1 Hungarian GP which hurt him even more apart from downed pace, but Laurent Mekies finds positive on his end.
Just like everyone in the second Red Bull seat, Tsunoda can’t catch a break. After he got the updated floor, the Japanese thought of a better F1 Hungarian GP at Hungaroring, but the team’s lack of pace thwarted any chance. It was similar for both him and Max Verstappen.
But that slight difference cost him a place in Q2. He was good enough for the second part at least, even if third was a stretch considering the performance lack. The team opted to fit new power unit elements to see him through the rest of the 2025 F1 season without penalty.
They thought of changing bits but Tsunoda reckoned they couldn’t ascertain the root cause of the issue and so, the parc ferme break was mostly to add new power unit elements. On top of the lack of pace, the Japanese suffered damage which hurt his chance to progress in the race.
He languished mostly at the bottom of the field. “I also picked up the damage from mid to the end of the race, which was not in my control, to be honest,” said a disappointed Tsunoda to media. “So I lost a lot of pace with that. I mean, to be honest, the baseline pace was already really, really struggling as a team and on top of it, having damage was not ideal at all.
“Pretty much the race was done with that, yeah. If we know that [the issue], probably I would have a much better pace because there was an opportunity to change something, but I think we’re not still clear yet what’s the issue. But that’s why I’m going to go to the sim, I’m going to go to the factory and investigate further what was causing it.
“Hopefully we can find it, because the Netherlands has got to be still at a similar downforce level, and we don’t want to have a similar race week as this. It’s just the grip, I don’t think the grip we have is the grip that we should, it’s not the grip that we should normally get, and it’s just really struggling with that, even one lap in the long run.
“With the amount of sliding I had, I am not sure [if one stop was possible]. Anyway, I had damage, so the pace cannot be taken as much,” summed up Tsunoda, who found support from team boss Mekies. The Frenchman saw good turn from him, especially in qualifying where he was closer to Verstappen. The gap seemed larger due to the closeness of the whole field.
“It’s the sort of weekend where it’s easy to be frustrated, especially for both Max and Yuki, because we didn’t give them the car that they could compete with,” said Mekies to media. “And then to add to the party, we got Yuki to start from the pit lane to get another PU in the car for the rest of the season. So, it’s normal that the frustration is high.
“The reality is that Yuki qualified probably for the first time in his career two tenths from Max in the first run in Q1, a tenth and a half from Max in the second run of Q1. And Max was not exactly having fun on track. So, it’s actually a very strong sample. Maybe his best sample so far. And after also some progression in Spa, I think it’s something that he and his engineering team have been doing a very good job at.”
Here’s Max Verstappen on Hungarian GP