F1 star laughed at for posting Helmut Marko tribute

Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Social

F1 star laughed at for posting Helmut Marko tribute

Social media gets the better of everyone, even F1 drivers!

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 10 December 2025 19:00

Red Bull F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda took to social media this week to honor Helmut Marko after news broke that the Austrian motorsport figure would be leaving the team, but the post didn’t quite go as expected.

After the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull stunned fans by announcing that the 82-year-old would step away from the organisation at the end of the year, with Marko saying he felt it was the right moment to move on from the sport.

Red Bull have celebrated significant championship success over the past four seasons, due in large part to the achievements of their star driver, Max Verstappen.

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But despite picking up every drivers' title since 2021, the Dutchman fell just two points short of this year's championship, as British driver Lando Norris clinched the victory last weekend.

Where the constructors' championship is concerned however, Red Bull could do no better than a disappointing P3 this season after No.2 driver Tsunoda struggled weekend after weekend at the wheel of the RB21.

But why did Tsunoda's post trigger a flurry of comments mocking his tribute?

Tsunoda makes Red Bull blunder in departing post

The 25-year-old was successful in sharing an image to 'X' of he and Marko in front of the Red Bull garage, with the caption: "thank you, Helmut, for bringing me into the Red Bull family and helping me in my Formula 1 career."

But what the F1 star had failed to do was crop the image, meaning he uploaded the picture from Abu Dhabi without removing the file details and the time and battery life stats from his phone's screenshot.

Yuki Tsunoda originally uploaded a picture with Helmut Marko without cropping it

Though only a small mistake, fans simply couldn't help themselves, with many running to the comments of the now deleted post to laugh at the error.

Tsunoda was quick to reupload the image, this time with the correct cropping, but his eagle-eyed followers didn't let him get away with the blunder.

"HAHAHAHAHAH HE CROPPED IT NOW," one fan pointed out, as another wrote: "YT_AbuDhabiGp_25-1520664.jpg" in reference to the original file name which Tsunoda accidentally shared.

"ohh yuki we all saw the first post," another social media user commented, but some were more forgiving, with a Tsunoda supporter writing: "no no leave the first post up yuki it's understandable and funny."

The tribute also prompted some to laugh at Red Bull's brutal track record of axings, with one individual replying to Tsunoda's original post with a hilarious image where victims of the team's second seat could be seen in Red Bull heaven, alongside ex-team principal Christian Horner, with a speech bubble that read: "Come join us Helmut."

Tsunoda was depicted in the light-hearted image due to the fact that he is the latest in a long line of drivers to be dropped from his full-time seat at Red Bull.

The meme also showed Liam Lawson, Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Perez, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo all awaiting Marko's arrival to their ranks of Red Bull's 'failed' signings.