Red Bull’s second seat curse strikes again: What’s wrong with Tsunoda?

Since his move to the Red Bull team ahead of his home race in Japan, Yuki Tsunoda has experienced a mixed run of form when it comes to results.

However, following that dramatic crash in Imola, it seems Yuki is once again struggling to find confidence — both in the car and in himself. His qualifying performance in Spain marked his worst since joining the Red Bull outfit as he finished stone last.

So, why is the Japanese driver struggling, and what does the telemetry data reveal?

The problem with Red Bull’s second seat

The second seat at Red Bull has been a problem ever since Max Verstappen established himself as the team’s dominant force. The team has rotated through numerous drivers – Ricciardo, Albon, Gasly, Perez, then Lawson and now Yuki Tsunoda. But none have matched Verstappen’s pace or, crucially, delivered the consistency required.

Liam Lawson looked like he could be the solution after a very good half-season with the sister team, Racing Bulls. Yet, after just two poor weekends, Red Bull management made the call and promoted the Japanese driver as the four-time champion’s teammate.

Tsunoda’s start wasn’t bad. After a tough race in Japan, he reached Q3 in the next three rounds and regularly put himself in points contention — a positive trend, despite some inconsistencies. But things changed in Imola after a heavy crash in Q1.

The following weekend in Monaco saw Tsunoda as the only driver across Red Bull and Racing Bulls not to score points, and it’s highly unlikely that will change in Spain unless something unusual happens.

After qualifying in Barcelona, Yuki reported he’d been having issues with the RB21 since Friday’s first practice session. Worryingly, neither he nor the team seem to know what’s actually causing the problem.

The gap between him and Verstappen hovered around half a second in terms of qualifying pace.

When we compare their fastest laps during FP2, the time delta steadily increases, almost every corner sees Max gaining a few hundredths, and by the end of the lap, the gap becomes significant.

The most glaring differences appear in Turn 9 and Turn 14 — two long, front-limited corners where a driver must have total trust in the car. Without that, you’re either slow or off the track — neither of which is acceptable at this level.

During Q1, Tsunoda’s speed graph told the same story. The delta climbed consistently, with no obvious mistakes from either driver. Even after qualifying Tsunoda said that his lap was clean.

Again, Turns 9 and 14 stand out. In the final corner, in particular, Yuki is visibly more tentative on the throttle compared to Max. This screams of a lack of confidence in the car and not fully understanding its limits.

We already know how sensitive the RB21 is to drive and how precise a driver needs to be to extract its full potential. Tsunoda is clearly struggling to do that — and tracks like Barcelona only highlight that problem even more.

However, it’s important to acknowledge the other side of the story. Tsunoda’s crash in Imola came at a significant financial cost to the Red Bull team. The damage to the car was extensive, and in the era of the cost cap, that sort of setback has serious consequences for a team. It’s almost certain that the team’s senior figures made it clear to the Japanese driver that such incidents simply cannot be repeated. This places an immense amount of pressure on him.

Another area where Tsunoda expressed dissatisfaction was in the long-run simulations during FP2.

The data shows he was, on average, around one second per lap slower than his teammate — both on the soft and medium tyres. That’s a massive deficit, especially considering both drivers were running identical cars, tyres, and track conditions.

While Tsunoda won’t be fighting for points on Sunday, the race still offers one clear objective: help the team identify what’s wrong with the car and gather as much data as possible.

The problem of Red Bull’s second driver is most clearly seen in the Constructors’ standings, where the Austrian team is neck and neck with Ferrari and Mercedes — despite Verstappen’s consistently elite results.

Read next: How Yuki Tsunoda can overcome the gap to ‘team-mate killer’ Max Verstappen