{"id":148424,"date":"2025-09-20T01:03:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148424\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T01:03:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T01:03:06","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-pinpoints-red-bull-improvement-with-now-it-makes-sense-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148424\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda pinpoints Red Bull improvement with ‘now it makes sense’ verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to locking down the field for the F1 2026 season, there\u2019s one major seat that everyone has an eye on: Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s. The Japanese driver has struggled to adapt to his Red Bull Racing machine, but the Azerbaijan Grand Prix could represent a turning point.<\/p>\n

For the first time this year, Tsunoda climbed out of the car praising the RB21\u2019s long-run pace as being unlike anything he\u2019s seen so far this year, noting that \u201cnow it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

RB21 \u201cmakes sense\u201d for Yuki Tsunoda in Azerbaijan<\/p>\n

Since being promoted to Red Bull Racing back at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda has struggled to really make waves in the challenging car, but after Friday practice in Azerbaijan, he admitted that he\u2019s feeling better than ever before.<\/p>\n

In Free Practice 1, for example, Tsunoda set the sixth-quickest time, outpacing teammate Max Verstappen. And while he dropped back to 14th on the timing charts in FP2, he still approached the media after the conclusion of the day\u2019s running with positivity.<\/p>\n

Asked about his pace, he replied, \u201cIt\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, short run there\u2019s some, obviously, room to put it all together.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut [that]\u2019s something that I tried, and it\u2019s good. There was something we were experiencing in FP2 and everything, but mainly what we were focused [on] was the long run, and that seems much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dig deeper into F1 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Eleven moments of Azerbaijan GP chaos as F1 returns to Baku<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What\u2019s really behind F1\u2019s push for more Sprint races?<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps most tellingly, Tsunoda admitted that this was an abnormal experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, never seen that kind of thing so far this year, in the long run,\u201d he said. \u201cSo far it\u2019s working. Now it makes sense, so far, with the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda\u2019s performance in Azerbaijan will be critical to securing his future \u2014 a future that, at this moment in time, is very much in doubt.<\/p>\n

After being passed over for promotion to Red Bull at the start of the F1 2025 season, the Japanese driver was only elevated to the team after full-season rookie Liam Lawson struggled to find his footing in the notoriously challenging RB21. The thought was that Tsunoda\u2019s greater amount of F1 experience would enable him to better assist in the development of the car, but his pace simply hasn\u2019t looked strong. In fact, he\u2019s sitting 19th in the overall championship standings, while Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar has managed to crack the top 10.<\/p>\n

Helmut Marko, special advisor to Red Bull, told media during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend that the team expected to make a decision about Tsunoda\u2019s future around the Mexico City Grand Prix, and in Baku, Marko reaffirmed that timeline with journalists.<\/p>\n

That means Tsunoda will have roughly three to four races in which to prove himself of Red Bull Racing quality \u2014 and a strong performance in Baku would be one major step in that direction.<\/p>\n

But overall, Helmut Marko is positive about the team\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long runs, we are promising,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are in a position to fight on the front. On the qualifying lap, we must find one tenth, one tenth and a half. But that\u2019s possible with fine-tuning.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he also noted that \u201croughly half a tenth\u201d can be found by swapping engine modes, which promises a strong qualifying session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can prove here that [Monza] was not a one-off event,\u201d said Marko, referring to Max Verstappen\u2019s victory at the last race in Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we will be top three tomorrow in qualifying, and that means we can also fight in the race for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the momentum goes. The car has a wider window, and it\u2019s easier to set up. So that definitely is a step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Marko\u2019s statements and hopes seem to be very Verstappen-centric. He did indeed reaffirm that \u201cYuki is the same equipment, like Max\u201d this weekend, but he declined to make any definitive predictions about the Japanese driver\u2019s anticipated performance.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Ranked: Five of the most infamous team orders calls in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to locking down the field for the F1 2026 season, there\u2019s one major seat that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[66611,1687,372,6537,7941,348,50,3803,101,56,54,55,7942],"class_list":{"0":"post-148424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-azerbaijan-grand-prix","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-helmut-marko","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-red-bull","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}