Red Bull chief gives ‘shocking’ Yuki Tsunoda verdict in brutal blow to 2026 F1 chances | F1 | Sport

Laurent Mekies described Yuki Tsunoda’s start at the Singapore Grand Prix as ‘shocking’, while the Japanese racer labelled it the ‘worst start’ of his life.

The 25-year-old finished the race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit down in 12th place, behind Racing Bulls prodigy Isack Hadjar, who was managing a power unit issue costing him four-tenths of a second per lap. Team-mate Max Verstappen finished second, right behind race winner George Russell.

These statistics are a bad look for Tsunoda, who is fighting to secure his future on the F1 grid. Red Bull are still weighing up their driver placement, but with Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad, and now Alex Dunne all battling the Japanese racer for three seats, there is little room for error between now and the end of the season.

“Yeah, you’re right, let me say it was not a good Saturday for Yuki,” said, assessing Tsunoda’s weekend. “I think, honestly, on Friday, personally, I was satisfied with the work he has done on Friday.

“It was not looking spectacular on page one, but looking at every single lap, I think it was at the right level on Friday, then Saturday was poor; we need to work with him to understand what derailed it.”

Tsunoda also suffered from a miserable opening lap that relegated him back to 18th in the running order. “Today, the first lap was certainly shocking,” Makies continued. “But from that point onward, I think he has done a very decent race.

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“I think he came back from P18 to P12 or P11, with a very decent pace. So we had a very poor Saturday, it’s costing us the weekend and a few points, and we’ll work with him to improve together.”

Tsunoda didn’t contest Mekies’ harsh assessment of his race start, but rather added fuel to the fire. “It definitely was the worst start or the first lap ever in my life,” he declared. “I can’t still believe what happened in the first lap. Every place I tried to go, every corner in the first lap, I was literally covered or blocked by someone.

“I just didn’t have any space to go. I lost so much position in the first lap. It was definitely the worst start ever. I don’t know what I should have done there. I’m sure there’s something I could have done better. That for sure made my life very hard afterwards. To be honest, the pace was one of the best I’ve had in my Red Bull career so far. It’s a shame what I had there.”