Laurent Mekies says Red Bull aren’t in a rush to announce their second driver for 2026. Image: XPB Images
Tsunoda has endured a difficult start since stepping up to the senior team, struggling to match Verstappen but showing flashes of improvement.
Mekies believes the Japanese driver is making steady progress despite recent setbacks.
“You know, we don’t think the speed can disappear, you know?” Mekies told Sky Sports F1. “Yuki did a very good end of last year, did a very good first part of the season.
“Of course, he has been having a rough time in the first part of the season here at this team. But, you know, we take it race by race.
“It was a step forward in Spa. Budapest, it being our worst weekend, probably was still very, very close in terms of gap to Max.”
“He was a tenth and a half away from Max in qualifying. And normally if you are a tenth away from Max it’s probably going to give you a front row. But in Budapest it meant being kicked out of Q1.
“He’s progressing I think step by step. We are not in a rush. We have 10 races to go.
“We try to do the best we can to support our drivers and we suddenly see some refreshed approach with Yuki and we try to support his progress.”
Red Bull’s struggles have coincided with a downturn in form that leaves them facing their worst constructors’ championship finish since 2015.
The team’s car has proven difficult to master for anyone other than Verstappen, and Mekies admitted Tsunoda is not alone in finding it a challenge.
“In terms of pure development, this team, as most teams are now, is now focussed to 2026,” he said. “So this is true that the focus is going to move there.
“However, it is key for us that we use these 10 remaining races to learn what we can learn on why this season hasn’t gone the way it was supposed to go.
“There is still many things that you can use the race weekends to try and experiment. That applies to the team, that applies to the drivers and that’s the work we are doing with both.”
The last round in Hungary highlighted the scale of Red Bull’s issues, with Verstappen qualifying eighth and finishing ninth while Tsunoda failed to break out of the lower midfield.
Mekies admitted it was an “outstanding low” but insisted the result was more a reflection of the track than a sign of deeper problems.
“Budapest was an outstanding low performance for us,” he said. “Clearly we tried many, many things in the weekend but not many things seem to have worked.
“I think the key question then was, is Budapest a one-off, or is it an even bigger worry? And I think we now understand that it’s probably something that is very much linked with what we’ve done at the track there.”
While McLaren continues to set the pace at the front, Mekies said Red Bull’s more modest goal for the rest of 2025 is to remain in the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari as they shift development to the next rules cycle.
“We’re far away, the lap time is quite punishing from what you can see,” he said. “But we are there trying to get that P3 slot against the best Mercedes, the best Ferrari and perhaps a few other guys.”
Verstappen will line up third for the Dutch Grand Prix, while Tsunoda will start from 12th.