Red Bull F1 star suffers embarrassment after FIA take action over driving too slowly

Max Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull, FIA, Imola, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Belgian Grand Prix

Red Bull F1 star suffers embarrassment after FIA take action over driving too slowly

The FIA have taken action

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 26 July 2025 21:57

The FIA have taken action against Red Bull F1 star Yuki Tsunoda in an embarrassing verdict that may have hit a little too close to home.

Tsunoda’s dip in form since joining Red Bull has been a constant source of frustration for the Japanese racer, who has only scored points in three grands prix.

In June, Red Bull chief Helmut Marko revealed that the team have written off the constructors’ championship, labelling Tsunoda’s form as ‘not good enough’ and ‘slow to get going’.

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On Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix, Tsunoda’s slow driving caught the attention of the stewards, albeit for a completely different reason.

Tsunoda was placed under investigation by the stewards for ‘driving unnecessarily slowly’ in sprint qualifying where he misjudged the delta time and received his second reprimand of the season for the incident.

Tsunoda in the F1 stewards room at Spa

Tsunoda's has had a disappointing 2025 season

Driving slowly was not the only incident Tsunoda was involved in on Friday at Spa, with the 25-year-old also caught in an impeding incident with Pierre Gasly.

It was the Alpine star that was summoned however, for allegedly impeding Tsunoda at Turn 17, which would have been a breach of Article 37.5 of the sporting regulations.

However, Tsunoda did not feel that he was impeded by Gasly and instead revealed that he had received a tow from his former Alpha Tauri team-mate, so did not have to back off in speed.

Therefore, the stewards took no further action against Gasly because no “unnecessary impeding” occurred.

Despite Tsunoda’s performance problems in 2025, the Japanese star has revealed that he has felt incredibly supported by Red Bull bosses such as Marko and former team principal Christian Horner, and evidence of his talent was displayed in qualifying on Saturday when he stuck his Red Bull in a respectable seventh place.

“Definitely, yeah. I feel support more than ever, from Christian and Helmut. I went to the south of the UK with a physio in Red Bull Racing to kind of reset myself, and that was coming from them,” he said to the media ahead of the British GP.

“They just wanted [me] to have the fresh air and everything, so that helps a lot for me to build up in a way with my rhythm, and also we’re going to try a couple of things.”

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