Yuki Tsunoda has apologised to the Racing Bulls team for comments he made about Liam Lawson after Qualifying last time out at the United States Grand Prix, with the Japanese driver labelling his remarks as \u201cvery unnecessary\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda<\/a> had hit out at Lawson<\/a> following Saturday\u2019s running in Austin when he felt that he had been blocked by the New Zealander, marking another flashpoint between the pair after a previous battle in Friday\u2019s Sprint Qualifying<\/a> when both tried to reach the line in time to set a final SQ1 lap.<\/p>\n Following Qualifying, Tsunoda said of his rival<\/a>: \u201cWith Lawson, it\u2019s just the usual story. He\u2019s always doing something on purpose, and it\u2019s b*******, so it\u2019s him. I don\u2019t care about him, to be honest.” Lawson, meanwhile, responded that he had \u201cabsolutely no idea what he\u2019s talking about\u201d.<\/p>\n With both in attendance for Thursday\u2019s first drivers\u2019 press conference ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, Tsunoda and Lawson were quizzed on whether they had spoken since Austin and if they were now happy to go racing against each other.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we have spoken in person,\u201d Tsunoda responded, before Lawson commented: \u201cI don\u2019t really know what happened in Austin, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsunoda \u2013 who previously drove for Racing Bulls<\/a> until his seat swap with Lawson at Round 3 of the championship in Japan, a move that saw Lawson demoted after just two races as a Red Bull<\/a> driver \u2013 then explained: \u201cI apologised to the team, to VCARB, for what I said in the media \u2013 it was very unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawson went on to give his take on the challenges facing the teams and drivers during the closing stages of the campaign, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s an intense part of the season, so for sure each weekend\u2019s going to be tough. It\u2019s just incredibly close this year, so each session, especially in Qualifying, we\u2019re trying to extract everything. It\u2019s little things that make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Tsunoda and Lawson are yet to learn their fates for 2026, amid speculation that the two are battling for a single seat as rumours circulate that Isack Hadjar<\/a> will join Red Bull and Formula 2 driver Arvid Lindblad<\/a> could make the step up to F1 with Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n In terms of the factors that they believe could swing things in their favour should they be vying for that spot on the grid, Tsunoda spoke of the role that he can play as team mate Max Verstappen<\/a> bids for the Drivers\u2019 Championship, while Red Bull are looking to close in on Mercedes<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> in the battle for P2 of the Teams\u2019 crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess the results [are what matter], right?\u201d the 25-year-old said. \u201cFor me it\u2019s more clear, it\u2019s really a crucial moment as a team in the championship, especially [for] my team mate, so [it\u2019s about] how much I can support that.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is the potential to be P2 in the Teams\u2019 Championship, which is very good, and what I scored in Austin [P7] is a good step, so I\u2019ve got to have more of the same. Just keep scoring at every race, which in the last few years Red Bull drivers have struggled at.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in the right trajectory, especially in the second half of the season so far, each race is pretty good. I\u2019ve proven those things in past years, and especially in another season with a different team, so what I have to do is quite clear.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Lawson, the 23-year-old answered: \u201cI\u2019m just going to drive as fast as I can every time I get in the car, and I don\u2019t think change too much.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a results-based programme, it\u2019s always been performance-based since I joined when I was 16 \u2013 it was always perform and you get promoted and you stay in the sport, and that\u2019s probably as simple as I can put it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda has apologised to the Racing Bulls team for comments he made about Liam Lawson after Qualifying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-221734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}