{"id":34780,"date":"2025-09-21T10:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/34780\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T10:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:39:07","slug":"ralf-schumacher-makes-grim-yuki-tsunoda-prediction-after-lucky-red-bull-reprieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/34780\/","title":{"rendered":"Ralf Schumacher makes grim Yuki Tsunoda prediction after \u2018lucky\u2019 Red Bull reprieve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuki Tsunoda will \u201cdefinitely not\u201d feature on the grid next season, with Ralf Schumacher declaring he is \u201clucky\u201d to still be in the Red Bull seat today.<\/p>\n

After four seasons with Red Bull\u2019s sister team, Tsunoda<\/a> was handed his dream promotion at round three of this year\u2019s championship. But it has been anything but a dream performance.<\/p>\n

Will Yuki Tsunoda or Isack Hadjar race for Red Bull next season?<\/p>\n

Replacing the beleaguered Liam Lawson at the Japanese Grand Prix, then Red Bull team principal Christian Horner highlighted the need to develop the RB21 and Tsunoda\u2019s experience as key reasons behind the driver swap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came into the 2025 season with two ambitions,\u201d he said, \u201cto retain the World Drivers\u2019 Championship and to reclaim the World Constructors\u2019 title and this is a purely sporting decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21 and Yuki\u2019s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda\u2019s promotion has fallen short of expectations, with the Japanese driver scoring just nine points in 14 race weekends. <\/p>\n

F1 2025 head-to-head stats<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s left Max Verstappen to again fly the flag alone for Red Bull, the driver single-handedly putting the team up in fourth place in the Constructors\u2019 Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda\u2019s struggles have led to speculation that his Red Bull days are numbered, with Schumacher going as far as to say so too are his days in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely not,\u201d he told t-online when asked if Tsunoda would race next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is lucky that the team has already announced that it wants to finish the season with him. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething would have to change fundamentally in the coming races for him to stay, but I\u2019m afraid that Tsunoda will continue to drive as before \u2013 and then won\u2019t have a cockpit in Formula 1 at all next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar, who scored a maiden podium at the Dutch Grand Prix when he brought his VCARB02 home in third place behind Verstappen, is the frontrunner to replace Tsunoda.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman is tipped to become Verstappen\u2019s seventh teammate at Red Bull, and his fourth in 18 months.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would advise Hadjar against taking the Red Bull seat, the former F1 driver replied: \u201cYes, that\u2019s what I said at the beginning (laughs)!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut first of all, I believe that such a talented, young driver like Hadjar must also learn to assert himself at a team like Red Bull. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn a car like the current one, which Verstappen developed together with the team, this is of course not possible. That\u2019s why I say: If Hadjar had to get into the same car as Tsunoda today, Red Bull would have destroyed him too. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut next year everything will be reset to zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means Max starts from scratch, his new teammate starts from scratch, everyone can get involved and get the set-up they need,\u201d the German added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, Hadjar has the speed that is needed. If the new concept also suits him, he is certainly the simplest, the most obvious solution as a teammate of Max Verstappen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Red Bull urged to do \u2018due diligence\u2019 ahead of rumoured Hadjar promotion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda will \u201cdefinitely not\u201d feature on the grid next season, with Ralf Schumacher declaring he is \u201clucky\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1463,20115,111,43,139,69,10903,12362,213,11108],"class_list":{"0":"post-34780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-home-page","9":"tag-isack-hadjar","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-popular","15":"tag-red-bull","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}