Tsunoda reflects on his performance during the 2025 Imola GP

After his horrific crash in yesterday’s qualifying, Yuki Tsunoda started the Imola GP from the pit lane. Despite this, Tsunoda finished in tenth. Tsunoda admitted to the media after the race, when asked about his crash, that he was “very frustrated” with his mistakes, despite scoring a point.

“Our team, I guess, made a good step. Myself, just very frustrated that I made a massive mistake yesterday. At least I gave something to the team, which is good. Especially about the board there. The paddock spill overnight was massive, so it’s better than nothing.”

Tsunoda has to “build the confidence gradually”

When asked about his confidence in the car, Tsunoda explained that the crash didn’t help him, as he is still at a learning stage with the car.

He explained that he has to build “confidence gradually.” Tsunoda revealed he could still remember every moment of his crash.

“Yeah, I think that to me this crash didn’t help at all with that. I’m still in the learning, and I think that crash recognised myself that I’m not understanding at all about the car yet. Those kinds of things, to me, as I had that crash, I still remember every single moment.”

“From turning over, turning, everything, it was very unexpected. That movement is the first time I experienced those things. Sometimes you have to step back and build the confidence gradually.”

“In this kind of environment, it’s easy to over-appreciate and put myself under a lot of pressure. I have to rethink myself. I’m happy that I was able to build up confidence in the race. For sure, still, my progress is continuing, but there’s still a lot of room to improve.”

Not scoring points would have been “unacceptable” for Tsunoda

Though Tsunoda could gain confidence during the 2025 F1 Imola GP, he admitted he was still frustrated with his crash. He explained that he wouldn’t have scored points in Imola if he had not moved on from it.

“Yeah, especially like that thing [the crash]. Myself, it’s been unacceptable. I moved on already, but there’s still something in my head, there’s a frustration. I shake it off, obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to score points there. For myself, it’s unacceptable.”

2025 Formula 1 Imola GP as a learning experience for Tsunoda and Red Bull

When asked by the media, Tsunoda admitted that the team made progress from FP2. Even though he crashed out during qualifying, Tsunoda and Red Bull didn’t really change the setup. As it worked well for the race. He admitted that the race was a learning experience for him and the team.

“We made a good step from FP2. FP2 was pretty bad with the rear leg, and I was struggling quite a lot. So compared to that, we made a good step. To be honest, since qualifying, it was kind of the setup that I did the first time.”

“It was quite a massive change. So actually, we didn’t really change the setup, to be honest. It was pretty good for the race. I think we learned something as a team, also myself, for the future.”

Red Bull “is not an easy beast to understand”

Throughout the race weeks, Tsunoda claimed that he built the confidence and learned a lot. When asked about if he could access the full potential of the car, Tsunoda admitted that he still needs to learn. He claimed that his car “is not an easy beast to understand.”

“I think, to be honest, I don’t know about the other cars. At least my car, it’s not an easy beast to understand. I recognise how much I have to build the confidence and build the learning throughout the race week.”

“Because it’s a new car, even if we change a lot of setups, I know exactly what’s going to happen. I can react to it. From lap one already, from FP1 and FP2, I can be on the almost 99% push, on the limit.”

“But the Red Bull, without a crash, I thought it was much under the limit, but at the same time, it was not at all. Those things come from the learning and the confidence, the understanding of the car. But the Red Bull, at least what I’ve experienced so far, it’s still a couple of times to go, for sure.”

Tsunoda “thought it was going to be safer” to use old parts

When asked if it had been possible to get P6 without the crash, Tsunoda claimed that it could have been possible. The team had already used old parts in the car. Tsunoda admitted that he “thought it was going to be safer.”

“I mean, I had already old parts from FP1, which I thought it was going to be safer.”

“To be honest, I don’t know. If I put it all together and made it possible, I’d say FP2 was pretty good. I was pretty close with Max, and I’m pretty happy with the pace. FP3 was a bit messy, so it’s hard to say.”

“But yeah, I’d say FP2 was really, really good. So I think that was not impossible for sure. And back to the FP1 and FP2, I think.”