Yuki Tsunoda reveals he is okay following his scary crash at the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP, but admits he’s lost for answers with how his Red Bull RB21 car fluctuates in performance at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
The Japanese racer lost his car at the Variante Villeneuve after clipping the left-side kerb on entry before bottoming out, spinning and heading into the gravel. Then, his car flipped upside down and catapulted him into the catch fencing before resting upright.
It was a terrifying moment for the mechanics watching the 25-year-old hurtle out of control, as well as audiences around the world, but thankfully he escaped from the car injury-free and headed off to the medical centre.
Now ensuring he will start from 20th on the grid, or from the pit lane depending on the level of damage to key components such as the gearbox, engine and electronics, he is tasked with a huge recovery job if he hopes to score points.
But whilst the crash might have shaken him up in the moment, his focus was clearly locked on why his Red Bull had such a drastic change of performance from Free Practice 3 to qualifying at the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP, and Tsunoda admits he’s lost for answers.
“We didn’t know exactly why,” Tsunoda told media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “But we made a lot of changes and it felt pretty good in the first turn, Turn 2 and Turn 3, and I crashed immediately after.
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“It’s just a shame. I feel like the car was quite there and I just put myself into the wall with such a stupid mistake.”
Tsunoda reveals he’s okay after huge 2025 Emilia Romagna GP crash
After earning his promotion to Red Bull at the Japanese GP in April, this is the first big disastrous moment for Tsunoda as he aims to catch up to the level of the defending four-time champion, Max Verstappen.
However, it isn’t simply a case of putting the foot down and driving like a maverick. The RB21 is very unpredictable and has a very narrow set-up window, meaning a lot of technical understanding goes into figuring out what the car likes.
This is something Tsunoda is still figuring out as he embarks on his journey with Christian Horner’s team, hinting his confidence might be taking a hit in a trend that’s afflicted every teammate of Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo quit in 2018.
“It’s quite up and down,” Tsunoda added, of Red Bull’s performance. “In some sessions I felt OK, in some sessions suddenly I dropped a lot.
“In FP3 it wasn’t… to be honest, it was a big mystery how I ended up [17th]. Obviously I was not able to put it all together, but at the same time it was pretty poor pace.”
Tsunoda added: “I’m OK, thankfully. But at the same time, it’s very frustrating how I ended up [there] in such an early stage, and especially a very unnecessary situation.”
