Guilty Red Bull Confirms Major Mistake Cost Tsunoda in Las Vegas Qualifying
Published: November 18, 2023
yuki Tsunoda’s promising start to the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend was derailed during qualifying, leaving him in nineteenth position.The Japanese driver had shown strong pace in the first free practice session, even outpacing teammate and championship leader max Verstappen, raising hopes for a strong qualifying performance and potential support role during the race.
However, inclement weather and a critical error by the Red Bull team ultimately hampered Tsunoda’s chances. He finished qualifying significantly off the pace,with only Lewis Hamilton recording a slower time.
Team Takes Obligation
Following the disappointing result, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies publicly accepted full responsibility for Tsunoda’s struggles. Speaking with Viaplay, Mekies stated, “Unfortunately, we were fully wrong about Yuki, so we can only take the blame for that.”
Mekies pinpointed a meaningful miscalculation regarding tire pressure as the root cause of the problem. ”We made a pretty big mistake with the tire pressure,so we practically didn’t give him any chance to get a good result becuase he had no grip. That shouldn’t happen, but it does happen, so we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And we’re definitely going to apologize to Yuki.”
the error effectively negated Tsunoda’s ability to compete effectively, dashing hopes for a strong showing from the second Red Bull driver in Las Vegas.
