Yuki Tsunoda’s sorry run of results continued in the 2025 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, as the Red Bull driver finished P17 and failed to score a point for the seventh race in a row.
Last Sunday also saw Tsunoda finish a Grand Prix in P17 for the second time since he earned his most recent point with P10 in the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola this May. He was also just P17 in Monaco to start his sorry streak, which also features P16 in Austria and P15 in Britain.
The Austrian and British Grands Prix also made Tsunoda the only Red Bull driver to come last in back-to-back races. Now, his woes in Hungary also make the 25-year-old the first driver in Red Bull’s 20-year history to fail to earn a point across seven successive Grand Prix finishes.
Tsunoda also now has as many point-less finishes for Red Bull as he does points since taking over from Liam Lawson back in March. The Japanese star scored seven points over his first five races for Red Bull, with a personal-best result of P9 from the Bahrain Grand Prix in April.
Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty ImagesMarc Surer calls out Yuki Tsunoda’s ‘excuse’ that front wing damage ruined his Hungarian GP
The Hungarian GP never really got going for Tsunoda, as Red Bull’s difficulty to deliver a fast set-up for the Hungaroring saw him qualify P16. It marked the Kanagawa native’s fourth exit during Q1 in the 2025 F1 season thus far, all of which he has delivered since joining Red Bull.
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Position Constructors’ Standings PointsPts 1 559 2 260 3 236 4 194
Red Bull would also only see Tsunoda finish Sunday’s race in P17 after starting him from the pit lane to add a fresh engine to his pool. But Tsunoda felt his Hungarian GP was ‘effectively over’ with a damaged front wing as the gurney flap fell off his car halfway through the race.
Losing the gurney flap cost Tsunoda a lot of pace, as he struggled for grip without the small element on the trailing edge of his front wing. But Marc Surer believes it is a futile ‘excuse’ for finishing the Hungarian GP with only Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly behind.
“A defective front wing is not enough of an excuse here,” Surer told Motorsport-Total.
Yuki Tsunoda did not show any pace even before his front wing damage in Hungary
Surer is right to call Tsunoda out for blaming his miserable Hungarian GP on the Red Bull ace suffering damage to his front wing midway through the race. The Japanese gem never really showed any pace to think that he might have secured a stronger finish without the damage.
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Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Tsunoda starting the Hungarian GP from the pit lane also did not make much of a difference to his performance. He caught the tail of the field straight away, just to sit behind the Alpine duo of Gasly and Colapinto until Red Bull stopped Tsunoda for the first time on Lap 20 of 70.
Sauber racer Nico Hulkenberg even trailed Tsunoda by more than 15 seconds after he pitted on L5, yet the German overtook the Red Bull ace just before he pitted on L20. Tsunoda then made no impression with soft tyres, before pitting for the last time for a set of hards on L37.
If Tsunoda had shown more fight through his first stint or with the soft tyres, then he might have been able to argue that suffering front wing damage destroyed his Hungarian GP. But there were no positives from Tsunoda’s performance, at a time he really needed to deliver.
Motorsport adviser Helmut Marko has confirmed Red Bull will decide Tsunoda’s future after the summer, having broken up following the Hungarian GP. The Austrian also confirmed that “everything is open”, with Tsunoda currently set to be out of contract at the end of this year.