Red Bull takes blame for Tsunoda strategy failure in F1 Belgian GP

After receiving the latest-spec floor on his Red Bull RB21, Yuki Tsunoda was delighted to qualify seventh in Belgium – his first appearance in Q3 since the Miami GP weekend more than two months ago. 

He held on to that position at the belated start of the race but then, apparently inexplicably, pitted for slick tyres a lap later than team-mate Max Verstappen, who had stopped at the end of lap 12. That cost Tsunoda track position and, crucially, left him stuck behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, who had qualified 13th but was among the first competitors to stop – with the Frenchman coming in at the end of lap 11. 

Tsunoda then became mired in the DRS train behind Gasly, running in 11th and unable to pass the Alpine due to Gasly’s lower-downforce configuration. Spending 30 laps trying to pass took too much life out of Tsunoda’s tyres and he dropped two places to a charging Oliver Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg in the final laps. 

“It was our mistake,” said new team principal Laurent Mekies in his post-race press conference. “We wanted to pit him on the same lap as Max [Verstappen], and everything was ready, the crew was out, everything was ready to get both cars, and we simply called him too late. 

“So it’s on us, unfortunately. And one lap made a big difference today – so he lost, I think, three or four positions, which ultimately stopped his fight for the points.” 

Red Bull driver advisor Helmut Marko was somewhat churlish, telling reporters that “there was a miscommunication” with the team and adding that Tsunoda’s “speed was also not good”. 

Mekies also explained the somewhat peculiar timing of the floor upgrade, which Red Bull fitted between the sprint race and qualifying on Saturday. Tsunoda claimed that not only did it deliver an improvement in overall grip levels, it was also more confidence-inspiring than the previous spec because it was less sensitive and less prone to uncontrolled sliding. 

“For the floor, as much as we got a lot of publicity for it, it’s nothing unusual or nothing different here,” said Mekies. “You push very, very hard to get the latest specification as soon as you can at the racetrack. You get it for one car, then you get it for the second car… and sometimes you are surprised because one comes in earlier, one comes in later. 

“So as soon as it became available, we were then faced with the choice to either wait for the following weekend or to use that slightly unusual window between sprint and main quali, which comes with some risk. It comes with some risk because it was extremely tight to be able to fit the parts of the car. 

“So, the crew did an amazing job, and as you have seen, we were actually slightly late going out for qualifying. And then you normally pay a price because the drivers need to adapt, and it’s not very nice to go into quali with a new-specification car. 

“But anyway, we felt it was worth the risk and the effort, and Yuki did an amazing job with it to adapt through qualifying to it and certainly did a big step of performance and did a very, very strong quali.”