Yuki Tsunoda was surprised to receive an order from his race engineer telling him to drop back from the cars ahead at the end of the sprint race.
Red Bull issued the instruction to Tsunoda while he ran 10th in the queue behind the Safety Car as the race neared its end.Despite Tsunoda’s confusion, the team declined to elaborate on the reason for the unusual order. His race engineer Richard Wood told him repeatedly they would explain the call in the garage afterwards.
Red Bull gave the order to Tsunoda after his team mate Max Verstappen, who was running fourth ahead of him, was given a 10-second time penalty for his collision in the pits with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Several other drivers were under investigation for incidents at the time. Tsunoda’s race engineer Richard Wood originally advised him to stay close to the cars ahead in order to take advantage of any possible penalties.
“Liam [Lawson], two cars ahead of you, is under investigation so he may get a penalty,” said Wood at one stage. He added later: “This is the final lap, keep it tight, keep it tight. We will finish under the Safety Car but keep it tight in case there’s penalties ahead.”
However at turn 17 on the final lap Wood gave Tsunoda a different instruction, telling him to “drop back to eight car lengths behind Bearman, please.”
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F1’s rules state drivers must remain within 10 car lengths of the car ahead during Safety Car periods. Red Bull likely felt eight car lengths was the furthest they could risk telling Tsunoda to drop back without falling foul of the rules.
Tsunoda was baffled by the late change in instructions, asking Wood: “What? What?” on his radio. “I’ll explain in the garage, I’ll explain in the garage,” Wood reassured him.
“You mean like make a gap or what? To the car in front?” Tsunoda continued.
As he drove back in Tsunoda complained about the “terrible” communication at the end of the race. “Yeah, the request came late, I’ll explain in the garage,” Wood replied.
“Did I do the right thing or what, did I do the right thing?” Tsunoda asked. “Yes you did, thank you very much,” Wood replied.
If Red Bull hoped to minimise the impact of Verstappen’s penalty by telling Tsunoda to drop back, it made little difference. The 10-second penalty dropped Verstappen from fourth to 17th in the initial classification. However the stewards are yet to announce the outcome of investigations into other drivers which could further alter the classification.
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Tsunoda’s radio messages at the end of the sprint race
| Wood | Yuki, race update, you’re currently, P10, P10. There’s three laps remaining, including this one. |
| Wood | So Liam, two cars ahead of you, is under investigation so he may get a penalty. |
| Tsunoda | I can’t see the tyre temp. I want to see it. |
| Wood | Display seven, display seven. |
| Wood | Okay, so this is the final lap, keep it tight, keep it tight. We will finish under the Safety Car but keep it tight in case there’s penalties ahead. |
| Wood | Correcting himself Okay so we need to be within eight… So, drop back to eight car lengths, eight car lengths behind Bearman please. Eight car lengths behind. |
| Tsunoda | What? What? |
| Wood | I’ll explain in the garage. I’ll explain in the garage. |
| Tsunoda | You mean like make a gap or what? To the car in front? |
| Wood | Yeah, recharge on. I’ll explain in the garage. |
| Tsunoda | Mate… |
| Tsunoda | I’m sorry about that. Communication, man, it’s like [unclear] just terrible. |
| Wood | Yeah, the request came late. I’ll explain in the garage. |
| Tsunoda | Did I do the right thing or what? Did I do the right thing? |
| Wood | Yes you did, yes you did. Thank you very much. |
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Jim from US (@jimfromus)
3rd May 2025, 20:15
And proof that there is 1 driver at Red Bull and the 2nd car is for testing tires and such.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
3rd May 2025, 20:17
How bad must it be to be the driver of that second Redbull. I mean, they don’t even pretend to care about your. Yesterday he got completely forgotten und now this. This car exists solely because the rules require a team to run 2 cars…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd May 2025, 21:21
In this case tsunoda didn’t lose anything, did he? It’s not like you can overtake during the SC and gaps don’t matter, I’m just not sure if there could be an exception with all these penalties that happened, lost track.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
3rd May 2025, 21:35
I think the incentive was to build a gap to slot Verstappen. It may didn’t cost him, but he was ought to give up a lot of time with a lot of penalties still pending..
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
3rd May 2025, 20:17
Yuki knows this kind of thing will be expected of him.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
3rd May 2025, 20:22
Whilst I don’t like this sort of thing either, I guess Red Bull maybe did some very quick calculations and thought Max may still be able to retain 8th or 9th place and finish just in front of Tsunoda even after that penalty. So maybe they were projecting he could end up in the last points position (rather than Tsunoda). Obviously didn’t work out that way, but I guess that was the rationale behind it. Max is still in the championship fight, whereas obviously Yuki isn’t.
James
3rd May 2025, 20:25
The second Red Bull seat has become a humiliation ritual
SteveP
3rd May 2025, 21:02
After penalties applied, finished in the points, unlike his teammate.
No shame in that one.
Ajay
3rd May 2025, 20:47
You join rebuild to be no.2. No shame in that.the the job
Franky
3rd May 2025, 21:06
Thanks for now showcasing what whas extremely obvious for many of us during a long time. The second RBR car is not only difficult to drive but also being used as a spare car to be subservient. I get that if Yuki was already out of the points there was no issue him loosing places but trying to make him plie up cars behind a safety car I have never seen before. When and if Yuki gets a grip on the car is yet to be seen but then the team will make him a pawn of all strategies.
João Macedo
3rd May 2025, 21:09
Nothing to do with being nº 2 driver. By dropping back the time difference of those behind would increase to Verstappen and that could reduce the number of places lost due to the 10 second penalty.
Edvaldo
3rd May 2025, 23:35
If it had worked, what would’ve happened? The points that went to Tsunoda would’ve gone to Max.
“Nothing to do with being number 2”. Yeah, right…
Ferdi
4th May 2025, 9:53
People like to find stuff on RedBull ever since they’ve been set on this foot by the media back in 2021. This is actually a very good case. In the first place you can wonder why out of all topics that can be discussed, the site owner decided to do an article on this at all. Secondly it shows people then go with that angle and not even realise it is perfectly sensible gameplay as Yuki loses nothing an Max potentially gains something. They would have totally done it the other way around as well. No, this is a perfect example of the (anti-)RedBull bias.
João Macedo
4th May 2025, 10:35
Spot on.
Renee (@renee)
4th May 2025, 11:46
“They would have totally done it the other way around as well.”
Sure bud, sure.
IF the cars were reversed, they would still only worry about Max. Probably even tell Yuki to drop out behind Max to give him any help he could get.
You mean like Max did a few years ago to Checo, when Max already had the title secured and refused to help Checo secure second in the standings just because he “wasn’t in F1 to help others”. Even Perez was publicly pretty mad about that. Before the bosses told him to shut it.
This is exactly why everyone keeps bringing up this behavior in RB. Because, it’s so toxic. The second car can be sacrificed in any situation if it helps Max in even the smallest way.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
4th May 2025, 13:49
The Max fans can’t be more wrong. For one moment try not to think about Max, think about Yuki. The drivers ahead of Yuki are getting time penalties. For Yuki to maximize his finishing spot he needs to be as close to the person in front of him as possible as do all drivers not getting a penalty. Dropping Yuki is detrimental to Yuki and only beneficial to Max.
Mark Evans
4th May 2025, 10:24
I think it was a perfectly sensible thing to do – any other team would have done the same. Yuki didn’t lose anything and the potential gain was to minimise the risk to team and driver points. Let’s not forget that Max didn’t cause the infringement. Yuki is not going to be fighting for a championship anyway.
Clearly people on her with an anti Red Bull motive.
João Macedo
4th May 2025, 10:36
Spot on.
John Matias
4th May 2025, 15:17
Your number 1 drivsr gets preferential treatment.
Anyone ever remember,”Valtteri, this is James”
Lewis had the same for years