Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda has opened up about his incident with Lando Norris, the penalty he received, his attempts to back up the McLaren driver, and him bowing out of a full-time F1 seat following his point-less finish at the Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday.
And after sacrificing his opening lap in Q3 to play the team game and give title contender Max Verstappen a tow, the Japanese racer saw his final lap deleted to qualify in P10.
With multiple drivers ahead of him diving into the pits, Tsunoda’s hard tyre strategy pushed him up to P3 on Lap 20. Three laps later, Norris got within that DRS window of the 25-year-old, and the two tussled whilst charging towards the Turn 6/7 chicane.
Thereafter, Tsunoda’s defensive moves prompted Norris to put all four wheels off the track and onto the grass to overtake the Red Bull driver.
The FIA soon put the incident under investigation, with Tsunoda being looked at for forcing Norris off the track and the Brit for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
The stewards’ ruling came back within a few laps. While they opted to hand Tsunoda a five-second penalty for “weaving in more than one direction”, Norris got off scot-free and received a “no further action” verdict.
At the end of lap 32, Tsunoda boxed to serve his penalty and bolted on the medium tyres. As the stop put him back out in P18, he began to haul his way back through the field and ultimately crossed the line in fourteenth place.
Tsunoda’s thoughts on the penalty
Speaking in the print media pen after the race, Yuki Tsunoda addressed his incident with Norris at the Yas Marina Circuit and weighed in on the harshness of the five-second penalty he received.
With regard to whether the newly crowned F1 champion had overtaken him off the track on Lap 23 of the Abu Dhabi GP, Tsunoda responded that a review of the footage was necessary to form a definitive opinion. Highlighting how the penalty significantly compromised his progress during the race, he reiterated that he needed to reevaluate his moves to determine if the punishment was justified.
“I have to review back what happened there. I kind of have an idea why they applied the penalty, but at the same time I have to really review back if it actually deserves a five seconds penalty or not, because it cost my race massively today.”
According to the FIA’s racing guidelines, moving to break the slipstream of another car “when the following car is a safe distance behind” is generally acceptable at the stewards’ discretion, but “more than one change of direction to defend a position is not permitted”.
As for whether he was basically trying to break the tow, Tsunoda claimed that it was a common defensive move that other drivers were performing as well. Remarking that he was unsure why the stewards sanctioned him, the Red Bull driver nonetheless labelled his penalty as severe.
“Everyone’s doing [moving around to break the tow]. So I don’t know what they’re [the stewards] thinking, but as usual, very harsh.”
Efforts to back Norris up
In terms of what his thoughts were when the team informed him of a rapid Norris chasing him down, Yuki Tsunoda stated that he could detect the tension in their voices and that he tried to reassure them.
Moreover, acknowledging how Verstappen’s pursuit of a fifth straight title was on the line, the Sagamihara native commented that he had spared no effort to keep the Brit at bay.
“They just kept hitting me consistently on the radio. I can tell from the stress from them, ‘but look, I know what to do. We talked about it. I’ll try my best to defend as much as possible to him [Norris]’.
“There’s not any benefits that let him go easily. That’s it. Which I did, I tried my best, but he just came very quick and overtook me.”
Asked if he could’ve backed Norris up in the final sector to cost him a little bit of time in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi GP, Tsunoda described how the 11-time race winner had maximised the car’s capacity in the first sector and the Turn 5 hairpin to close down the gap in a single lap despite his best efforts to slow the McLaren down.
“I thought about it, but he [Norris] was also quite far away. I think he managed massively into Turn 9. The gap was still like 8 tenths, 9 tenths, and he was closing up I guess 5 tenths per lap.
“I thought I could hold on one more lap, but also he did well that he maximised performance in Turn 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and closed the gap in one.
“He did well, but I don’t think there’s much difference, even though I slowed down massively. Because probably he will overtake me into Turn 1 then.”
Tsunoda gave his all until the end
With the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP potentially being his last-ever race in F1 and what his sentiments were in the aftermath of the race, Yuki Tsunoda revealed that his feelings were similar to what he had experienced at the end of the season finale last year. Furthermore, the 25-year-old reflected on his overall campaign with Red Bull and noted how he had suffered plenty of misfortunes in the final twelve race weekends.
Emphasising the solid pace he had nevertheless demonstrated in certain instances, Tsunoda also admitted that he was disappointed to finish outside the points in spite of him doing his utmost to conclude his last race and season on a high note.
“It feels normal currently, I don’t know why. It feels like last year, finishing in Abu Dhabi.
“Looking back, to be honest, I don’t like to use the word luck much, but in the second half of the season especially, my luck was nothing.
“A lot of things going on without my control, and within that, I think multiple times I showed my pace, which is good. But last year, last race, the five-second penalty was a bit tough, but at least I gave it all, and that’s it.”
