Yuki Tsunoda isn’t in contention for the drivers championship, but the struggling Japanese star could be key to getting Max Verstappen over the line by Abu Dhabi.
That’s the way Red Bull Racing sees it anyway, with a call delayed on Tsunoda’s future until the result of the title battle becomes clear.
Elsewhere, the fight is heating up off the track as well as on it, with the FIA battling legal action in both the UK and France, this time over the rules governing the presidential election set for 12 December.
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RED BULL RACING DELAYS DRIVER CALL TO FOCUS ON VERSTAPPEN TITLE
Red Bull Racing will wait until later in the season before confirming its 2026 driver line-up to remain fully focused on winning the drivers championship and finishing second in the teams title.
Max Verstappen has surged back into title contention, shrinking a 104-point deficit to just 36 points in only five rounds thanks in part to upgrades brought to the car at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman’s results have also helped Red Bull Racing in the constructors championship, where it’s now just nine points behind Mercedes for third place and only 10 points behind Ferrari for second.
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda, however, has seen no similar uptick in form, scoring points just twice in the last five rounds.
Tsunoda is under pressure to keep his seat, and the team said shortly after the mid-season break that a decision would be made on whether to keep or flick him around the time of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Standout rookie Isack Hadjar has been widely tipped for the drive.
But in Mexico the team changed its tune, saying instead that it was in no rush to make a call given it held all the cards in negotiations.
While team boss Laurent Mekies said the intention was still to make a call before the end of the season to give his drivers certainty, he admitted that maintaining stability inside the team for the final rounds of the year had become a priority given the tightening title picture.
“We don’t want the distraction now,” he said, per The Race. “What is at stake is exactly what you describe. The parameters are exactly this.
“We are lucky enough, we are free to choose what we think we need to choose, and therefore the only parameters are the ones you mentioned.”
Mekies added, though, that he felt Tsunoda was showing progress and warranted an extension of time.
“He was very, very close in quali to Max,” he insisted. “And the first stint was very, very strong as well, 0.2 seconds or 0.3 seconds from Max on the same very long first stint on the medium.”
Tsunoda finished outside the points in 11th, though the under-pressure driver said he felt a much higher finish would have been on the table without a slow pit stop and with a better strategy tailored to him rather than to helping slow Verstappen’s rivals.
“Today was easy points. We just threw it away,” he said. “This kind of situation, missing out on points that easily we could’ve taken today — P8, P7, I don’t know — [is] frustrating.
“I don’t know what to say. It was literally out of my control today. A shame.”
PIT TALK PODCAST: Oscar Piastri has lost the title lead for the first time in 15 rounds after a recovery drive from seventh to fifth wasn’t enough to counter a dominant victory by teammate Lando Norris. Where has it gone wrong for the Aussie, and can he fight back from here?
FIA GOES TO COURT (AGAIN)
FIA presidential hopeful Laura Villars is taking the governing body to court in France over election rules that she claims are locking out potential candidates from challenging the incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Villars is petitioning for the suspension of FIA elections until the court can rule on her complaint.
Every presidential candidate is required to submit a list of supporters to the governing body before they can appear on the ballot. The list of names must comprise a vice-president from each of the FIA’s six global regions.
The would-be vice-presidents must be selected from a list of officials the FIA deems eligible to sit on its World Motorsport Council.
However, the list contains only one eligible person from the South America region — Fabiana Ecclestone, wife of former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, who has already pledged he support to Ben Sulayem.
Because there are no other eligible officials from South America, no other presidential candidate can put together the required list of names to appear on the election ballot.
The rules effectively mean that Ben Sulayem will be re-elected unopposed on 12 December.
Villars, who had intended to stand in the election, told the BBC she is now taking the FIA to court to ensure it “complies with the organisation’s own statutes and with fundamental democratic principles”.
“This step is neither hostile nor political,” she said. “It is a responsible and constructive initiative to safeguard transparency, ethics and pluralism within global motorsport governance.
“As I have stated publicly, I am not acting against the FIA. I am acting to protect it. Democracy is not a threat to the FIA; it is its strength.”
A court hearing is set down for 10 November. Villars and the FIA have both been invited to a mediation meeting in Paris.
American official Tim Mayer also intended to enter the election before hitting the same roadblock. In an explosive speech announcing his withdrawal from the process, he slammed the governing body for having only “the illusion of democracy”.
Mayer said he had submitted complaints to the FIA’s ethics committee about the electoral process but had low hopes for a resolution given Ben Sulayem and his pick for senate president were the final arbiters of all accusations.
The FIA initiated changes to the ethics structure late last year following several dismissed inquiries into Ben Sulayem’s actions.
The FIA told the BBC in a statement: “Due to the nature of the process, the FIA is unable to comment on this legal action and will not be able to provide further comment on this matter.”
The FIA is also fighting court action in the UK launched by former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa into is handling of the 2008 crashgate scandal.
Chaotic Mexico GP race recep | 09:18
BUTTON ANNOUNCES PROFESSIONAL MOTORSPORT RETIREMENT
The 2009 Formula 1 world champion, Jenson Button, will retire from professional motorsport after next weekend’s 8 Hours of Bahrain, the finale of this year’s World Endurance Championship.
Button retired from Formula 1 a 15-time grand prix winner at the end of 2016, in the depths of McLaren’s darkest years of the turbo-hybrid era, but continued racing in other categories after a year on the sidelines.
He won the Japanese Super GT championship in his debut full-time season in 2018 with Naoki Yamamoto before making his World Endurance Championship debut in the LMP1 class in the 2018–19 season.
The Briton made several cameo appearances in a wide array of series subsequently, including Germany’s DTM, the British GT Championship, the Nitro Rallycross Championship and the NASCAR Cup Series.
He also entered the now-defunct all-electric off-road series Extreme E with his own team, though he subbed himself out after only one race for rallycross star Kevin Hansen. The team has continued racing under his name until the demise of the series earlier this year. It continues racing in the category’s successor, Extreme H.
He returned to the WEC last year with Jota Sport, racing a Porsche 963 last season and Cadillac V this year, finishing a career-best second in Sao Paulo in July with co-drivers Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais.
The endurance series will be his last as a professional driver, with the Briton telling BBC Radio Somerset that Bahrain will be the scene of his final race.
“I’ve always liked Bahrain,” he said. “I think it’s a fun track, and I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can because this will be the end of my professional racing career.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time with Jota in WEC, but my life has got way too busy and it’s not fair on the team or on myself to go into 2026 and think that I’m going to have enough time for it.
“My kids are four and six and you’re away for a week and you miss so much, you don’t get this time back. I feel like I’ve missed a lot the last couple of years, which has been fine because I knew that would happen, but I’m not willing to do that again for another season.“
But Button said he wouldn’t become a stranger to the racetrack, with hobby racing with his collection of classic cars still in his future.
“I’ve got classic cars I love to race, and for me that’s exciting because it’s mine — a car that I own — and I love the mechanical aspect,” he explained.
“It’s very different to the cars I race in WEC and F1, you’re really connected to it which I love, having to heel and toe, getting the gear shift just right, no aero, it’s all mechanical.”