The Red Bull Formula 1 team has apologised for the “quite big mistakes” that led to Yuki Tsunoda’s costly Q1 exit at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Tsunoda will start the race in 19th, joining Lewis Hamilton on the back row, after struggling to cope with the tricky wet conditions around the street track in Vegas.
That is compared to second for his world champion team-mate Max Verstappen, but Red Bull has shouldered the blame for Tsunoda’s result insisting he wasn’t at fault.
“We made quite big mistakes with his tyre pressures,” said team boss Laurent Mekies. “These things obviously should not happen. Apologies to Yuki, he was in a good rhythm all weekend and it’s really painful to take this chance away from him.”
It is understood that Red Bull failed to adjust his tyre pressures, which would have been crucial because of the low-grip surface that drivers had to contend with in the cold night session.
Tsunoda claimed that grip levels were the worst he had seen since joining F1 in 2021, adding that the visibility was “terrible”.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
The 25-year-old was even left bewildered by his struggles, especially when he previously felt comfortable on the wet tyre but did not have the same feeling in Vegas.
“We didn’t expect to use the extreme tyres,” said Tsunoda. “I’m just three seconds off compared to any other drivers. Clearly I was missing something, because I was literally driving on ice, so I don’t know what’s happened.”
Verstappen shared the same feeling regarding the grip, though he felt more comfortable on the wet tyre than when it was time for intermediates come Q3.
“It was really, really slippery out there,” said the four-time world champion. “It’s already slippery in the dry but in the wet – yeah, it’s not fun, I can tell you that.
“I like to drive in the wet. This felt more like driving on ice, so it took a long time to get the tyres to work a little bit.
“I do feel that maybe we were a little bit more competitive on the extreme tyre, but the track is improving, so you have to move on to the inter and I struggled a lot just to have any kind of grip.”
Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren
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