Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has admitted the team must “question” why Yuki Tsunoda was so far off Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Following a cautious start to life at Red Bull after replacing Liam Lawson, Tsunoda has found himself under mounting pressure as the F1 2025’s current triple-header has developed.

Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda out in Q1 at Spanish Grand Prix

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The Japanese driver crashed heavily in qualifying at Imola earlier this month before finishing two laps down in Monaco last weekend.

Tsunoda’s woes worsened in qualifying in Barcelona on Saturday as he qualified 20th and last in Q1 with a lap 0.6 seconds slower than team-mate Verstappen, who ultimately claimed third behind the dominant McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Tsunoda has scored just seven points in his six appearances for Red Bull since replacing Lawson, with the Spanish GP marking his first Q3 exit on pure pace behind the wheel of the RB21.

Max Verstappen vs Yuki Tsunoda: Red Bull head-to-head scores for F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Lawson lost his Red Bull seat having failed to make it out of Q1 across the first two races of F1 2025, qualifying last of all for both the sprint and main races in China.

Marko admitted to being mystified by how Tsuonda’s pace deserted him in qualifying in Spain, having been classified no lower than 14th across the three practice sessions in Barcelona.

He told Sky Germany: “The performance is disappointing.

“He was relatively close to Max on Friday. And now in qualifying nothing worked at all.

“And to finish last – even if the car isn’t entirely identical [to Verstappen’s] – is something we need to question internally.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying, Tsunoda admitted that he had been struggling since the start of the first practice session on Friday in Spain.

He said: “Straight away from FP1 first push, I said on the radio that something feels not right.

“Just the level is not really matching my expectations, how I feel in the car and in terms of grip level overall.

“Obviously, we tried to solve the issues throughout the week, but especially when you’re  limited by overall grip, whatever we changed [didn’t work].

“It’s not able to cure the core limitation which I had, so it’s a shame.”

Asked if his struggles were related to car setup, he replied: “I don’t think it’s the setup. Because to be honest, we tried almost every setup.

“There’s obviously some preference here and there, but I think I’m still convinced that we’re able to at least put it all together in terms of the car balance.

“And the car balance itself is not bad and at least also my confidence was there.

“The lap in qualifying on both [sets of] tyres, especially the last push, was pretty good, so it doesn’t really stack up with my results and with the pace that I’m having.”

More on Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull Racing from PlanetF1.com

👉 Yuki Tsunoda news

👉 Red Bull news

Despite hopes that the much-anticipated Spanish Grand Prix technical directive, introduced to control front wing flexibility, could shake up the competitive order, Red Bull were cut adrift from the fight for pole position between Piastri and Norris.

Verstappen’s final Q3 effort was 0.302 seconds slower than Piastri’s lap for pole.

Marko has insisted that Red Bull have made “a step closer to McLaren” on pace this weekend, yet conceded that there is currently no clear fix for the RB21’s weaknesses with high temperatures and soft tyre compounds.

He added: “The softer the tyres, the higher the temperatures, the less grip we have. And I don’t yet know how we’re going to solve that.

“But in general, we have come a step closer to McLaren.

“A podium should at least be in the cards.”

Read next: Jenson Button thief jailed after £250,000 robbery