Yuki Tsunoda was the last driver circulating at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix after a poor strategy was exacerbated by an unusual front wing failure on his car.
Both Racing Bulls drivers started in the top 10 but neither scored points as the team opted for a two-stop strategy. On a day when most drivers pitted once, that proved their undoing.Tsunoda was already languishing outside the points places when a flap failed on the right-hand side of his front wing. That forced him into the pits for a third time for repairs.
“The front wing is definitely, to be honest, frustrating,” he told the official F1 channel. “It shouldn’t happen like that.
“I never touched, obviously, a car in front. Just some parts fall apart just naturally. At least it’s a good learning for the future to try to avoid this situation, but I was expecting much more.”
He said he was “very disappointed” with his result. “The strategy is the thing that probably we have to improve. But at the same time I understand what their thoughts behind [it were].”
Tsunoda said the team’s car was less competitive on Sunday than it had been earlier in the week, which was why their decision to pit twice did not pay off.
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“The pace was okay,” he said. “We probably we didn’t have pace as much as in the sprint qualifying race, so we have to analyse that.
“But also I’m sure we didn’t also maximise the strategy as well. So it’s mixed, things were going on but I guess the main learning is what we can prevent those situations and how we can make a more accurate strategy for the future.”
Despite showing strong pace, the team has just three points, thanks to Tsunoda’s sixth-place finish in the sprint race. They fell to ninth in the championship behind Haas this weekend.
“I think we just have to refocus,” said Tsunoda. “We know that we have good pace from the car, but I think just probably we were a little bit too reliant on that and maybe we missed something that’s really important before this race. We have to review that.
“Haas did a really good job, to be honest. They were struggling a lot until these races and suddenly they improved the pace from this race on. So big credit to them.
“But at the same time, I think also I know it’s a bit frustrating, we know that we can do better and we have the tools and we have much better people than them and a much better car than them. So missing two races in a row, with big points, it’s something we definitely have to think about.”
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hunocsi (@hunocsi)
23rd March 2025, 15:14
If other sites are correct, it seems like Tsunoda has had enough of the Racing Bulls shenanigans after this GP and will leave the team with immediate effect. Good on him for finally making the right decision.
knightameer (@knightameer)
23rd March 2025, 15:17
Can you please share which sites are reporting this? If true, this is interesting.
anon
23rd March 2025, 15:55
@knightameer that does not seem to be what other sites have been claiming. A few sites have been speculating that Red Bull may switch Lawson and Tsunoda around after this weekend, but that would point at Tsunoda staying within the overall organisation.
Even if he did leave, where exactly would Tsunoda go? Whilst there was speculation last year that he might move to Aston Martin, given Honda’s future plans for that team, Honda have confirmed they’ve cut most of their ties with Tsunoda and are now just providing sponsorship (they’ve also cut their support for Ayumu Iwasa, the reserve driver at Racing Bulls, back to a basic sponsorship agreement).
He’s unlikely to find a seat elsewhere on the grid, as most teams seem to have their main driver line up sorted and have reserve drivers already in place – at best, he’d probably have to sit out most of 2025, and at worst he’d be out of the sport for good (and he hadn’t expressed an interest in leaving Formula 1 yet).
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd March 2025, 15:25
The only thing I’ve read is that he & Lawson could swap teams as soon as for the next round.
Simon
23rd March 2025, 16:34
SureJan.gif
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd March 2025, 17:11
Simon See motorsport-dot-com for reference.
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd March 2025, 20:49
My guess is they’ll swap after another disappointing race for Lawson in Japan.
ykiki (@ykiki)
23rd March 2025, 15:17
I feel bad for the guy. The team has cost him a lot of points so far this season with their questionable pit strategy.
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd March 2025, 15:27
A front wing indeed should never suddenly fail at speed, but reading between the lines, maybe he already knows something concerning his immediate future & therefore, spoke about the matter the way he did.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
23rd March 2025, 15:31
Just one of those unpredictable equipment failures I would say.
Just a shame it happened to Yuki.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
23rd March 2025, 15:42
He’s fortunate that it failed the way it did and stayed on the car rather than simply falling off & going under the car.
Neil (@njf03)
23rd March 2025, 15:56
Can we predict his finishing position should he have not had the wing failure and got the pass made? Considering the disqualifications.
Ekr
23rd March 2025, 23:15
He was on track ahead of ocon, so a 5th was likely after dsq
David
23rd March 2025, 23:47
No, he was chasing Sainz at the time, Ocon was well ahead, so really 1 or 2 points after DSQs would have been Yukis maximum.
Being the only team to commit to two stops really cost RB. The wing failure just added insult to injury.
Erk
24th March 2025, 9:53
No if RB didn’t pit him a 2nd time a 5th was definitely the final result
Honda
23rd March 2025, 23:43
RB has done it again. Both drivers were doing their job. Yuki was couple of secs ahead of Ocon who ended up P5 after Ferrari DSQ. So another P5 lost in 2 weeks. Hadjar also impressive, although he got stuck behind Doohan in later stage. But the main problem was their foolish 2stops when everyone else was on 1stop, it just ruined their race.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
24th March 2025, 11:32
I think the team should get a huge fine for this. They get a black and orange flag if anything is visibly dangerous, and they car fell apart due to a design flaw. The fact that this could even happen is dangerous and given it could have fallen off into the path of others surprises me that there is no action being taken against them. It isn’t like the car got damaged due to hitting something. If the car has the ability to break apart like that, the team should get forced to fix it.
F1NZ
25th March 2025, 6:07
Yuki talks it up but never delivers. Both Yuki and Lawson have had a bad run. In testing Lawson was better than Yuki. The RB is a woeful car designed for Max’s toxic driving style. No one can drive it. They say Checo was bad driver.. because he could not drive Max frankenstain car. Max can only drive to dive bomb people. Look at the sim overlay of Max and Lewis and one shows optimal driving, smooth corners and fast exits. The other. Uncontrolled late braking to make up time, then losing control and then slow exits.