In his steady climb up the grid from P15, Yuki Tsunoda clinched the last point by finishing P10 in the F1 Qatar GP. While the Lusail International Circuit offers few overtaking opportunities, the Red Bull driver made his moves stick. Tsunoda moves on to the Formula 1 finale with another 5 points added to his name.
The Red Bull driver had an eventful race weekend, qualifying P5 for the Sprint, ahead of his teammate. After finishing the Sprint Race in the same position, the Japanese driver had a tough Qualifying session, failing to make it past Q1. Nevertheless, Tsunoda did not let his confidence falter as he went on to pick up a point during the F1 Qatar GP.
The difficulties of the Qatar race
The 23rd round of the 2025 season proved to be a challenging race due to the mental and physical exertion and limited overtaking corners. However, Yuki Tsunoda’s F1 Qatar GP weekend showcased real progress for the driver.
In his post-race print media interview, the Red Bull driver gave an overview of the Lusail experience. Focusing mostly on the hardships he experienced, Tsunoda made sure to acknowledge the positives as well:
“Yeah, like this kind of… With the safety cars, it kind of forced us to have just one strategy basically. So, the matter of overtaking in the track, this kind of track was very very difficult to overtake. I think the free-air pace was ok. But just yeah, seriously, I didn’t feel any DRS basically. So I tried, it was very difficult to overtake, but I fought.”
Evolution in the second half of the season
This 2025 season was eventful for Yuki Tsunoda. Starting in Australia with Racing Bulls, the Japanese driver was quickly promoted to Red Bull. Yet, the promotion did not just entail racing under a different team. Tsunoda had to adapt fast, making his transition even more demanding.
Before Red Bull Racing’s driver announcement, Tsunoda had the chance to review his performance up to the F1 Qatar GP. The 25-year-old pointed out he only got to drive a similar RB21 to Verstappen in the four previous races. Furthermore, he made sure to emphasise the performance this upgrade allowed him to bring:
“I think I’ve done what I could do. I mean, especially the last four races, the team gave me a lot of support. I was able to drive with a very very close car, almost identical car to Max [Verstappen]. And I think within that, I proved a lot of things.
“I think, since I had an identical car, I was always within 2-3 tenths. And even last figures, consistently FP1 to FP3, there was multiple laps I was ahead of him. Qualifying, we know what’s happened; it’s not my control. Yesterday, in the sprint qualifying, I was able to help him and finish ahead of Max in the Sprint qualifying.”
The Qatar misfortune and Abu Dhabi
In a strategy-restrictive race, Yuki Tsunoda was running short of options for overtakes. Especially after his unfortunate Qualifying, the Red Bull driver was frustrated to see the incredibly small margins. Tsunoda spoke of the F1 Qatar GP session, underlining its particularities:
“Qualifying was a bit of a shame. But within that worst case, I was still 3 tenths behind. And 3 tenths behind, normally, in qualifying is like top 5. I think I’ve shown what I can do.
“And I don’t think, within my seat, consistently able to drive like this, close, at least if I remember, last few years I didn’t see much drivers like this. Able to achieve this. A step in the middle of the season, and went through very very difficult moments at the beginning of the season.
“It’s just a matter of now, trying to help Max in the next race. But yeah, like I said, the pace is there. And I don’t think how much drivers can live with it,” Tsunoda explained, finishing off his argument with his mind set of doing the best for his team in the Abu Dhabi finale.
Honda’s support
Ever since 2018, Honda has been the powertrain provider for Racing Bulls, and one year later for Red Bull Racing. The manufacturers have shown support for Tsunoda, a fellow Japanese who honoured their Asian heritage.
As the team already announced the end of their partnership with the Japanese manufacturer, 2025 marked the last year of this collaboration. With the current chaos at Red Bull after the F1 Qatar GP and the driver announcements, Tsunoda reviewed Honda’s faith in him throughout his career:
“They’ve always been a part of Red Bull, and also myself. I’m happy I was able to go through my career with them. And last year with the collaboration with Red Bull. Hopefully, we can finish very high with Max, the championship. I also appreciate the support from them.”
