Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has apologized to driver Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver secured a nineteenth starting position during the qualifying round in Las Vegas, a result that Mekies, the French team boss, attributes primarily to mistakes made by Red Bull itself. “We made some pretty big mistakes with his tire pressure,” admits Mekies.
Yuki Tsunoda, along with Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton, will start the race in Las Vegas from the very last row. During the qualifying round at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, the Japanese driver could only manage P19, while his teammate Max Verstappen was able to drive his RB21 to the first row. However, Tsunoda’s disappointing qualifying result was not due to his own driving skills, as Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies explains.
“We made some pretty big mistakes with his tire pressure,” the French team boss admits to the media present in Las Vegas. “Of course, these kinds of things should not happen. My apologies to Yuki, he was in a good rhythm all weekend and it’s really painful to deny him this opportunity.” Reportedly, Red Bull failed to adjust the tire pressure, which would have resulted in the Japanese driver having almost no grip during the cold night session.
Driving on Ice
Tsunoda indeed confirms that since his Formula 1 debut in 2021, he has never experienced such poor grip. “We didn’t expect to use the extreme tires (the rain tires),” says the Red Bull driver. “I’m only three seconds behind the other drivers. I clearly missed something, because I was literally driving on ice, so I don’t know what happened.” Tsunoda is not the only Red Bull driver who compares driving during the qualifying round in Las Vegas to ‘driving on ice’. Max Verstappen also described the qualifying round in the rain as ‘like ice’.
