Christian Horner blamed by axed Red Bull F1 star Yuki Tsunoda - 'It was difficult'
Yuki Tsunoda has pointed the finger after losing his place on the Formula 1 grid.
Axed Formula 1 racer Yuki Tsunoda has claimed his season was made "particularly difficult" by a crucial decision made by former team principal Christian Horner. The Japanese racer was installed as team-mate to Max Verstappen after just two rounds of the 2025 season when Liam Lawson was demoted back down to junior team Racing Bulls having floundered under the pressure.
But results did not get much better after more experienced racer Tsunoda took over. Across the 22 rounds that made up the rest of the season, five of which also included Sprint races, the 25-year-old managed to score only 33 points, placing him 17th in the drivers' standings and below both Lawson and Isack Hadjar, representing Red Bull's junior team.
In contrast, Verstappen got the very best out of his car all year which put him in a fight for the drivers' title despite McLaren having clearly the quickest car for most of the season. The Dutchman won eight Grands Prix and finished only two points behind champion Lando Norris.
Though, in Tsunoda's defence, for the first half of the season at least he was driving a car which did not have the same performance upgrades as Verstappen's machine. Knowing he was their only driver with a chance of competing with the McLaren duo for the title, Horner focused all of the team's development resources on the Dutchman.
That is a situation which was resolved by Laurent Mekies when he took over as team principal and decided to create more parity in terms of the parts that Red Bull's driver had. That helped Tsunoda to secure a couple of strong results in Azerbaijan, where he finished sixth, and Austin where he scored in both the Sprint and main Grand Prix, though he remained some way off Verstappen's pace for the most part.
Reflecting on the season, having been informed that he will have no place on the 2026 grid as Red Bull have promoted Hadjar to their main team and signed teenager Arvid Lindblad to replace him at Racing Bulls, Tsunoda suggested he found it tough to show his value having not been afforded the same tools as his team-mate.
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He said: "I think it was the tightest season in the history of F1. Differences of less than one-tenth of a second can change two or three positions, so the difference in updates can have a big impact.
"Even a difference of two or three tenths of a second from Max can mean a difference of five to seven places in the rankings, which makes a huge difference in how the results are perceived. Giving feedback and demonstrating my own value was particularly difficult."
