Yuki Tsunoda called the circumstances behind his elimination in the first part of United States Grand Prix sprint qualifying "pretty shocking" after he ran out of time to start his final flying lap. But despite Red Bull Formula 1 team principal Laurent Mekies' apology, the timing problem was just one part of a more complex equation.
Tsunoda only completed one flying lap in qualifying, good enough to put him 18th. He returned to the garage after that first attempt, when he was 14th in the order, but was among a group of drivers who were unable to start a final flying lap along with fellow SQ1 victims Ollie Bearman, Esteban Ocon, and Gabriel Bortoleto. They were all among a group of cars who were approaching the start line when the chequered flag was put out. This is what led to Mekies apologising.
"We got it wrong, we apologise to Yuki," said Mekies. "The programme was a bit too tight, it was a choice between staying out and cooling down on track or trying to cool down a bit better in the garage, we thought we'd have time to get out of garage and back out again, but it was only possible for two cars to do that, but we missed the cut. We owe Yuki and apologise there."
Red Bull could have done better strategically, but there were other factors at play within Tsunoda's control.
The first problem was Tsunoda's lack of pace on his first run in SQ1. He lapped 1.119 seconds off team-mate Verstappen's time on his first flier, which mirrored the pattern seen in free practice. There, Tsunoda looked strong on the hard-compound Pirellis, but struggled once he bolted on the softs. While he was on mediums, which are mandatory in SQ1, he suffered from a similar pace deficit.
He had the disadvantage of a tailwind at the first corner and the Turn 11 hairpin that cost him, but he was far from the only driver to encounter that. It's also worth noting he continues to run the older-specification front wing, compared to Verstappen, but as he said on Thursday, "it shouldn't be that huge a difference".
The second problem was that Red Bull opted for a run plan that meant he returned to the pits rather than staying on track. There was a split in strategy, with most drivers coming in but several staying out, including the Mercedes and McLaren drivers, Verstappen, Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc.
From the moment Tsunoda stopped in front of his pitbox to being released back out of the garage, approximately two minutes and eight seconds passed. It's important to note that was necessitated by the need to refuel his car, which will have been partly motivated by the desire to give him the minimum weight penalty on his first run given the risk of elimination on pace, and this wasn't in itself an especially slow turnaround.
When he joined the back of the long queue, created as usual by the necessity for drivers to make space for themselves before they joined the track, he knew he was in trouble.
Bot team and driver recognised the risk, with Tsunoda saying over the radio, "it's going to be tight" and "I'm not sure we're going to make it".
The timing of exits was further complicated by the fact there were drivers who stayed on track between laps. With everyone searching for around eight seconds of space, the two Mercedes cars and Gasly in particular contributed to the delays by forcing those exiting the pits to wait even longer than usual. They did nothing wrong, and it's important to note that in sprint qualifying the rules that demand only one set of tyres be used in each segment mean this is a strategy you see more frequently than in a conventional session.
Tsunoda's departure from the pitlane was accelerated, immediately attacking Liam Lawson after crossing the pit-exit line, with their battle continuing through the first couple of corners before being settled in favour of the Racing Bulls driver. In total, 93 seconds passed between leaving the garage and entering the track and he ended up as the fifth car in a queue of drivers who all failed to start their laps. This included Lawson, but his first attempt was good enough for 10th.
Speaking after his elimination, Tsunoda said he was baffled by the timing of leaving the garage and pointed to what happened as being outside of his control.
"The timing of the garage exit was not even close," said Tsunoda. "I don't know what's happened there, to be honest. Something went wrong and we didn't have any opportunity to do [a] laptime, so [it was a] shame.
"Very frustrating. It's not a thing I can control, to be honest, or we can control. But it was more up to them [the team] than myself, managing the timing. So it's pretty shocking."
Tsunoda's frustration and bafflement was understandable and Red Bull played its part in the failure, but had he put in a better lap at the first attempt he would have reached SQ2.
And while he can legitimately argue he would have done so had he been able to make his final attempt, there were factors within his control that also fed into the situation. Had Red Bull been confident enough to fuel him up for the full session, which it might have done had he been more convincing on softs in practice, he would also have been able to fit in a final lap.
And as Verstappen, who ultimately took pole position showed, the Red Bull is plenty quick enough for him to have done so.
