Yuki Tsunoda delivered his best result as a Red Bull driver at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend. If he can maintain this form, his chances of staying on the F1 grid will improve significantly.

Prior to Baku, Tsunoda hadn’t finished higher than ninth in a Grand Prix since stepping up to Red Bull in April. But he qualified on the front three rows for the first time and then held onto his P6 in the race despite coming under late pressure from Lando Norris.

The result only gains Tsunoda two spots in the standings (he moves from 19th to 17th), but this was perhaps his first comprehensive and convincing performance in Red Bull colours. There will still be caution at this stage, particularly as Sergio Perez anomalously outpaced Max Verstappen at the same race last year.

Still, he’s sure to be encouraged by the second-best result of his F1 career (after fourth after the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP). And a report from The Race suggests that he’s ‘unlocked something’ in the car.

Yuki Tsunoda finally addresses Franz Tost’s work ethic criticism

Just before the summer break, after a grim 17th-place finish at the Hungarian GP, Tsunoda informed Laurent Mekies that he was cancelling his summer holiday in Japan. He rerouted to Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory to carry out some investigations in the simulator.

Tsunoda is now ‘convinced’ that the only way to escape his crisis at Red Bull is to ‘knuckle down and keep working’. The car is widely thought to be difficult to drive, but he doesn’t want to use that as an excuse.

The 25-year-old asked for extra simulator sessions and feels he made a breakthrough back at base after the Italian GP. Tsunoda had shown promise by scoring points at Zandvoort and reaching Q3 at Monza, but he finally combined single-lap and high-fuel pace in Baku.

Significantly, this comes after Franz Tost criticised Tsunoda’s attitude in a recent interview. He said he’d been telling him to work harder ever since his debut for AlphaTauri in 2021.

Tost said: “I’ve always told him: Yuki, in Formula 1 you have to work. If I’m five-tenths to one second slower than my teammate, then I’ll stay in the paddock day and night or study the data until I know why I’m slower.

“And that’s where we still have to get Yuki to. He’s talented, but unfortunately, he’s not eager enough, not hardworking enough to compensate for this shortcoming.”

Liam Lawson has also faced questions over his attitude

Whether or not Tsunoda was aware of Tost’s comments, he’s clearly become more dedicated in recent weeks. It’s likely to be too late to save his Red Bull seat.

There’s a growing expectation that Isack Hadjar will be Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2026. That leaves Tsunoda battling Liam Lawson for a spot at Racing Bulls, with the other seat marked out for F2 prospect Arvid Lindblad.

Lawson’s conduct during races has ‘come under scrutiny’ after a string of incidents with rival drivers since he returned to the grid last autumn.

The problem for Tsunoda is that Lawson also had his best weekend of 2025 in Azerbaijan, with the New Zealander finishing one spot ahead of his former teammate. Much will depend on which driver can get closest to replicating their performance levels in the next few races.