Mercedes F1 Support Yuki Tsunoda After Christian Horner & Red Bull Backlash

The qualifying session at Mexico was supposed to take its assumed course of a Red Bull car on pole. With the Bulls dominating the previous two practice sessions, the money was on Milton Keynes. However, a last-minute spin by Tsunoda followed by Perez went on to hamper Verstappen’s time as well. While this was shocking, Christian Horner’s comments towards Yuki Tsunoda took the spotlight.

Christian Horner openly blamed the young Japanese driver for having ruined, no, “Tsunoda-ed” Red Bull’s results. Around the same time, Yuki Tsunoda tweeted an apologetic tweet. While fans and even members from the F1 community consoled the driver, Tsunoda had a surprise friend who had his back.

The Mercedes admin, breaking their usually funny character, took a moment to encourage the driver. “Keep your head up, Yuki. Don’t let the haters get you down.” 

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What stunned fans were the contrast between a rival team’s admin and the Red Bull honcho. So, the general reaction was anger. Upon looking at replays, no one can blame Tsunoda for distracting Sergio Perez or for letting Max Verstappen assume there would be yellow flags. He went wide as any driver could.

 A contrasting weekend in Mexico for Yuki Tsunoda

The incident with Red Bull aside, what should be the talking point of Q3 is Tsunoda’s performance. The entire weekend rather; Tsunoda has tapped into his AlphaTauri and drawn out such an incredible pace.

Before the final runs of the teams, Tsunoda was in third- an extremely rare occurrence for AlphaTauri. However, what makes an otherwise joyous moment sad is that he will start at the back of the grid on Sunday.

The Japanese driver was rightly confident in his game. “I think we’ve shown that the pace is there this weekend, so I’m aiming to make my way forward tomorrow in the race and looking towards the points.”

Thus, instead of getting shot down for an issue that wasn’t his fault, to begin with, fans believed Tsunoda deserved recognition instead. Nonetheless, as he starts the Mexican GP in the 17th, it’s going to be a tough fight for points for Yuki Tsunoda. Then again, it’s nothing he can’t handle.

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