![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/XPB_1364464_HiRes.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYuki Tsunoda during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Image: Bearne \/ XPB Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tYuki Tsunoda during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Image: Bearne \/ XPB Images<\/p>\n
Despite sitting 18th in the championship on 10 points \u2013 seven of which have come after replacing Liam Lawson at Red Bull \u2013 Tsunoda has not been ruled out for next year.<\/p>\n
Marko confirmed the team\u2019s 2026 line-up will not be decided until later this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur driver evaluation traditionally takes place after the summer break,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, everything is open. We\u2019re looking at performances \u2013 both positive and negative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsunoda has failed to score in his past seven races, most recently finishing 17th in Budapest after starting from the pit lane, following a power unit change after the 25-year-old qualified 16th.<\/p>\n
But despite the disappointing result, Red Bull\u2019s motorsport advisor said the Japanese driver is still progressing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was as near as never before, one-tenth he was behind,\u201d Marko said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unfortunately, he was dropped out in Q1. He\u2019s moving up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Red Bull made a strategic call to change Tsunoda\u2019s power unit and brake cooling configuration prior to the race, taking the penalty in Hungary where overtaking is difficult rather than at a potentially costlier venue later in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he would have to change at maybe Monza or Zandvoort. And I think because of his starting position, it was strategically better to do it here,\u201d Marko explained.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda\u2019s performance early in the Hungarian weekend was encouraging, lapping three-tenths quicker than Verstappen in Friday practice and within a tenth of him in Q1.<\/p>\n
Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies described it as \u201cmaybe his best so far,\u201d adding: \u201cAfter also some progression in Spa, I think it\u2019s something that he and his engineering team have been doing a very good job at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsunoda has repeatedly stressed that the gap to Verstappen is narrowing since the introduction of a key floor upgrade in Belgium.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back on the season so far, I can feel pretty positive, we\u2019ve made progress, especially since the new floor upgrades were brought to Spa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gap with Max continues to close. It may not feel like we are getting there but on paper we are only one tenth off his pace. I\u2019m not sure many other drivers could get as close to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damage suffered midway through the Hungarian Grand Prix further compromised Tsunoda\u2019s race, with a gurney flap falling off his front wing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat cost us a lot of pace and worsening grip, so we then lost the ability to make a positive strategy call that would benefit us.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda also pointed to recent communication issues within the team, referencing missed opportunities in Hungary and at Spa.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, something we can improve a lot communication-wise is that if I was fighting for the points, there was a situation that could cost quite big,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has happened the last two weeks, the last two races back-to-back in a row so it is starting to get very frustrating with that. Something we have to improve a lot and fight hard the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsunoda said he remains focused on turning things around after the current break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to investigate where we went wrong and put in some hard work over the summer break so that we don\u2019t start the next half of the season how we finished this one,\u201d said Tsunoda.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, but we will stay positive and bounce back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. Image: Bearne \/ XPB Images Despite sitting 18th in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,918,6490,85,5077],"class_list":["post-52183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-red-bull","tag-slot3","tag-sports","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52183","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=52183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}