Red Bull F1 star 'plans' night out to improve key relationship

Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda talk together ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

Red Bull

Red Bull star 'plans' night out to improve key relationship

There have been some teething issues for Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 15 April 2025 21:57

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Yuki Tsunoda has jokingly suggested that he needs to plan a night out to improve his relationship with Red Bull race engineer Richard Wood, after a shaky start to their career together.

The relationship between a driver and their race engineer is crucial during a grand prix. As the drivers’ main point of communication between the team, Wood is responsible for informing Tsunoda of Red Bull’s strategy decisions and to translate feedback to the team to improve performance.

Speaking to the media in Bahrain, Tsunoda revealed there had been some ‘communication problems’ between himself and Wood following an FP2 session, where the driver could only manage P18.

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"That’s part of the learning process to understand each other well. It was only the fifth session together," Tsunoda said.

"If we can improve the communication, I think the operational stuff will run a lot smoother. That should improve the lap times.

The Japanese driver then cheekily added: "Maybe Woody and I should go out tonight and get to know each other better, with my Japanese-English and his Scottish-English. That should be a fun night!"

Tsunoda improves in second Red Bull race

Despite a disappointing start to the weekend for Tsunoda, the 24-year-old actually produced the best result for Red Bull's second driver in 175 days at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Firstly, Tsunoda made it into Q3 and qualified P10 on the grid, a feat Liam Lawson failed to achieve at the team and one Sergio Perez struggled with on multiple occasions in 2024.

In the end, the Japanese driver only finished P9 compared to Verstappen's P6, and crucially below the Haas of Esteban Ocon and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.

Team principal Christian Horner described the result as ‘reasonable’ and complemented Tsunoda for a ‘solid weekend’, although both driver and boss will be hoping this position can be built upon even further at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

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