Since his promotion to Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda has faced difficulties maintaining consistent performance, managing only nine points so far this season. The Japanese driver is now under significant pressure to improve his race pace, with Red Bull and Helmut Marko highlighting the Mexican Grand Prix at the end of October as a key benchmark, making the upcoming three race weekends critical for Tsunoda’s future with the team.
Meanwhile, Isack Hadjar is currently leading the charge as the top contender for a Red Bull senior seat in 2026, yet Tsunoda has not dismissed the possibility of returning to the team in the future. Speaking before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Tsunoda acknowledged that improving his race pace remains the main challenge facing him.
Progress Seen in Qualifying but Race Pace Lags Behind
Tsunoda’s qualifying pace has shown signs of progress, particularly with his advancement into Q3 at Monza, meeting Red Bull’s expectations for the Saturday sessions. However, the underlying issue remains his performance over full race distances, where laps tend to fall off significantly. This contrasts with previous team dynamics at Red Bull, where drivers like Sergio Perez—who struggled more on Saturdays compared to Max Verstappen—maintained relatively closer race pace during the races themselves.
Addressing this issue, Tsunoda explained from Baku,
I need to focus on the long runs, especially for now,
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team.
In Monza, I had a bit of damage, but as a team we also work hard to understand what’s the main issue causing the long run pace. The things that we experience are things that even the team can’t really explain. That’s the main thing.
He expressed satisfaction with his short-run pace, adding,
In terms of the short runs, I’m very happy with it. I think the team is very happy as well. It’s clear that I’m showing race by race that I’m getting close to Max, even though there’s package difference,
Tsunoda said, referring to the older floor specification he has had to use in most races.
I was consistently two tenths behind Max in qualifying, apart from Q3. I think that’s definitely showing well and definitely people in the team are noticing this.
Impact of Damage and Tyre Wear Issues at Monza
Tsunoda’s difficulties on race day were starkly apparent at Monza, where he finished around eighty seconds behind the race winner, Verstappen. Tsunoda reported that damage to his car contributed less than three tenths of a second per lap in lost time, but other unexplained issues affected his performance badly over the race distance.
What I heard is that the damage was less than three tenths per lap, but as I said, we were struggling anyway. Myself, I was struggling with the things that even the team couldn’t explain, and we tried to sort out those issues,
Tsunoda added.
These challenges forced Tsunoda to make compromises in his car’s set-up, which was far from ideal for him.
We had to kind of cure those things with the balance, which was not ideal because I was happy with the balance we had,
he explained.
But somehow the tyres were wearing like crazy. Until FP3, what we tried was to find out what was causing the tyre wear issue, but we couldn’t find it, so we just had to adjust the balance. In a way I didn’t like that, and obviously it was just taking so much performance from the car.
This difficulty in balancing tyre wear clarifies why Tsunoda can still perform competitively over a single flying lap, but struggles immensely during longer stints when tyre preservation is critical.
Intensive Efforts to Address Long-Run Deficiencies
Tsunoda emphasized the ongoing work both from his side and the team’s to improve his endurance during races.
I’m just lacking in the long runs. We are working really hard, both from my side and also from the team’s side, to put everything together in the long runs. Maybe there are some things that you can’t explain, but I try a lot of things to make it work and enjoy this process.
The next three races, culminating with the Mexican Grand Prix, will serve as vital test points for Tsunoda to demonstrate improved race pace and consistency. With the team closely monitoring his progress against emerging talents like Isack Hadjar, Tsunoda’s ability to address these weaknesses will likely dictate his standing within Red Bull Racing moving forward.
