He qualified and finished sixth, his best finish since replacing Liam Lawson<\/a> at the Japanese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n A better result for Tsunoda was possible, but he wasn\u2019t able to stay ahead of Lawson when coming out of the pit lane.<\/p>\n Tsunoda\u2019s improvement coincides with Red Bull\u2019s return to form in the hands of Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Helmut Marko with Yuki Tsunoda<\/p>\n \u00a9\u00a0XPB Images<\/p>\n Verstappen has clinched back-to-back F1 victories, making him an outsider for this year\u2019s F1 world drivers\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n Speaking to Sky Germany, Marko detailed why and how Tsunoda has made progress, particularly in the race.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sat down after the race in Monza – Tsunoda was sometimes a second slower than Max in the race – and decided on a different approach,\u201d Marko said.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply put, you have to coach him more because of the less experience compared to Max. We have set up the car more according to his wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Tsunoda fighting for Red Bull future<\/p>\n Tsunoda\u2019s improved display in Azerbaijan is timely as he fights for his Red Bull F1 future.<\/p>\n Tsunoda is expected to be replaced by Isack Hadjar <\/a>at Red Bull <\/a>from 2026.<\/p>\n Hadjar has arguably been F1\u2019s rookie of the year in 2025.<\/p>\n Hadjar has been incredibly consistent at Racing Bulls, out-performing Lawson since the Kiwi\u2019s return to the team.<\/p>\n The Frenchman scored his maiden F1 podium at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n With Cadillac confirming their two drivers for next year, Tsunoda\u2019s options are very limited.<\/p>\n If Racing Bulls opt to keep Lawson and then promote Arvid Lindblad, then Tsunoda will not be on the grid in 2026.<\/p>\n A return to RB doesn\u2019t seem likely for Tsunoda.<\/p>\n He\u2019s already spent four seasons at the team \u2014 and started this year with them, which would have been his fifth.<\/p>\n A reserve driver role with Aston Martin or Haas could be possible, given their respective Japanese ties.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Alpine advisor Flavio Briatore has already ruled out signing either Tsunoda or Lawson, opting to stick with their junior drivers – Franco Colapinto or Paul Aron – for next year.<\/p>\n Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helmut Marko has credited a \u201cdifferent approach\u201d for Yuki Tsunoda after his promising Azerbaijan Grand Prix performance. Tsunoda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,806,805,803,804,946,85,5077],"class_list":["post-169291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Helmut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/xpb_1339193_hires-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n