Struggling Tsunoda Is ‘Not A Pancake’ – Verstappen

Max Verstappen has jumped to the defence of his latest teammate Yuki Tsunoda, pointing the finger more in Red Bull’s direction.

When the team concluded that the gap between Verstappen and Sergio Perez was too big and sustained last year, Red Bull promoted Liam Lawson to the seat for 2025.

He was dropped after just two races, and now, in his seventh weekend in the navy blue overalls, Yuki Tsunoda is dead last on the Barcelona grid.

“On Friday, Tsunoda was quite close to Max,” said team advisor Dr Helmut Marko.

“Last place certainly has to be questioned, even if Yuki isn’t driving the latest car specification. The floor is different to Max’s, and some other parts are different. But he crashed them himself in Imola!

“We are not in the easiest situation with spare parts. But it seems that in qualifying, Yuki can’t improve,” the Austrian noted. “His results are disappointing.

“We’ll have to analyse everything.”

Some think Red Bull is consistently making the same mistake with the occupant of the seat next to Verstappen – installing a driver to be the clear ‘number 2’.

“Of course I spoke to Red Bull,” Carlos Sainz admitted to the El Cafelito program ahead of the Barcelona race weekend, referring to his talks last year before signing with Williams.

“They didn’t want me, for whatever reason. We didn’t come to an agreement,” the former Ferrari driver added.

He clearly implied that Red Bull memorialises the ‘number 2’ provisions in black and white. “I don’t discuss contractual matters with anyone,” Sainz insists.

“I think anyone who knows anything about Formula 1 understands why Red Bull didn’t want me.”

As for Verstappen, he believes the struggles faced by Perez, Lawson, and now Tsunoda in the past year are more a result of a car problem rather than a driver problem.

“He’s not a pancake, is he?” the Dutchman told De Telegraaf when asked about Tsunoda’s struggles. “He’s proven that in the past.

“He was often faster than Lawson, right? So this probably says a lot about the car. What does it say? You can fill that in for yourself.”