Why Red Bull keep needing more time to assess Tsunoda’s F1 future

Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Laurent Mekies says the squad needs more “clean samples” to judge Yuki Tsunoda’s performances after another race derailed by being caught up in the midfield battle.

Tsunoda was left with floor damage in the Italian Grand Prix after contact with former team-mate Liam Lawson, leaving the Japanese driver without points while team-mate Max Verstappen won from pole.

The weekend has not done Tsunoda’s chances to salvage his Red Bull career too many favours, but equally there is shared frustration between Tsunoda and the team that the frantic midfield action is not allowing him to show his true hand.

Having advanced to Q3 after being within two tenths of Verstappen in Q1 and Q2, Tsunoda failed to string together an optimal lap in Q3, leaving him 10th on the grid. And while Verstappen remained out front after a brief battle with Lando Norris, Tsunoda was mired in a midfield battle that saw him unable to find clean air and left him exposed to potential incidents.

That’s especially relevant because, unlike some of his predecessors in Red Bull’s cursed second seat, team principal Mekies feels Tsunoda has more work to do in race trim than on qualifying pace and Monza was another chance gone for the 25-year-old to show whether or not he has made any steps in that regard.

“[We need] clean samples, because today was a poor sample,” Mekies said. “You know how it is, the races at the front are very clean, you get at least a good stint to read your performance. Here, it’s very difficult to get anything out of today. First stint in traffic, second stint with a car damage. If I look back at the last couple of races, it’s quite similar.

“I think it is correct to say that we probably have more work to do on race pace than on qualifying pace with Yuki. But again, it’s also why we are giving ourselves a bit more time.”

That timeframe is the end of October, when Mekies and Helmut Marko will want to have finalised their driver line-ups across Red Bull and Racing Bulls for 2026. The decision is still heavily trending towards a Red Bull promotion for Hadjar and an F1 debut at Racing Bulls for junior driver Arvid Lindblad.

Any comparisons between the two Red Bull-owned teams have not been made easier by the stark difference between the difficult to drive Red Bull RB21 versus the more compliant VCARB 02, so Tsunoda’s job is simply to get closer to Verstappen in both qualifying and racing conditions.

“Quali pace, race pace; that’s what we look at, it’s as simple as that,” Mekies said. “The race for Yuki is difficult to read because of the traffic in the first stint, damage in the second stint, but if I look at qualifying, I still qualify it as a good weekend.

“He was two tenths from Max in Q1 and Max was not exactly slow this weekend. And with a small deficit from the car he was two tenths from Max in Q2, there is no doubt everybody is pushing 100% in Q2.

“Yes, the gap was bigger in Q3, but first he put the car in Q3, which is a very good performance, and second he was first on the road in Q3, it didn’t help as well. I think short-run pace was a very good sample for Yuki; long-run pace, it’s frustrating not to have a clean race day.”

As Mekies mentioned, Tsunoda was still on an older floor specification after Verstappen received the latest version, but the expectation is that both drivers will be on par again next week in Azerbaijan. But Mekies hastened to add that the floor tweak didn’t change the world for Red Bull, as its surprisingly strong Monza performance was more down to overhauling its set-up philosophy than the benefit of its new components.

“We had a floor upgrade only on Max’s car,” he added. “It’s a small update. It’s not a few tenths, but everything matters. We are confident it’s a small step in the right direction. We are hoping to have it on both cars for next race.”