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Yuki Tsunoda Faces Challenges in Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Qualifying

Yuki Tsunoda expressed his frustration following a challenging qualifying session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as he struggled to find the limits of his Red Bull car. The Japanese driver secured an eighth-place start in Jeddah, while his teammate, Max Verstappen, achieved a remarkable pole position for the race.

This weekend marks only Tsunoda’s third race event with Red Bull after his promotion from the sister team, Racing Bulls, to replace the underperforming Liam Lawson after just two races in the 2025 Formula 1 season.

Despite describing the VCARB 02 as relatively easy to handle, Tsunoda highlighted the difficulties he faced with the RB21. “I had a massive snap in Turn 4,” he reported. “When I push more, this unpredictable snap keeps happening and it’s just really hard to reach the limit.” He expressed his dissatisfaction, noting, “I could squeeze out the last few seconds, or few milliseconds [of the Racing Bulls car], but currently it’s hard to find the limit so I’m really frustrated.”

Tsunoda is determined to improve and close the performance gap with his teammate, a four-time world champion. “I wouldn’t say I’m struggling [against Verstappen] because it’s only the third race, but it’s really unpredictable so far – I still don’t know why I had that snap,” he reflected.

Looking to enhance his skills, Tsunoda aims to learn from Verstappen’s adeptness at adjusting the car’s setup in varying conditions. “Maybe I was too comfortable with the set-up I had in free practice, which was during a time when the track was in poor condition,” he mentioned. Tsunoda acknowledged the increased difficulty as the track improved with rubber, remarking, “For me, it was worse when the track got better and better, so that’s the difficult part.”

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