{"id":201357,"date":"2025-10-15T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201357\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:10:07","slug":"laurent-mekies-privately-said-something-about-yuki-tsunoda-thats-not-a-good-sign-for-his-f1-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201357\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurent Mekies privately said something about Yuki Tsunoda that’s ‘not a good sign’ for his F1 future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Yuki Tsunoda is fighting not just for his Red Bull future, but for his place on the Formula 1 grid. And Laurent Mekies appears to be losing faith.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda is out of contract<\/a> at the end of the season and sits 17th in the championship, 14 places below teammate Max Verstappen. Isack Hadjar could take the Red Bull seat<\/a>, leaving the Japanese driver scrapping for a place at his old team Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

The problem for Tsunoda<\/a> is that he can\u2019t seem to build any momentum. He delivered his best result as a Red Bull driver with P6 in Azerbaijan, but then failed to score in Singapore.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

TalkingPoints<\/p>\n

Does Yuki Tsunoda deserve a place on the 2026 F1 grid?<\/p>\n

This has largely been the story of his tenure. He\u2019s only once scored in back-to-back Grands Prix \u2013 consecutive P10 finishes in Emilia Romagna and Monaco.<\/p>\n

Laurent Mekies seems \u2018confused\u2019 by Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s underperformance<\/p>\n

One Autosport Web<\/a> reporter was concerned for Tsunoda when he saw him trailing Verstappen by 1.3 seconds in the final practice session at Singapore. He asked Red Bull<\/a> staff whether a car problem or traffic had contributed.<\/p>\n

The \u2018look on their faces\u2019 told him that wasn\u2019t the case, and this was Tsunoda\u2019s real pace. He was later eliminated from Q2 in 13th place, having only reduced the gap to Verstappen to eight-tenths.<\/p>\n

In the race, he gained one spot, but was nonetheless lapped as his teammate finished on the podium. Afterwards, the reporter spoke to Mekies<\/a> on his way to the airport, and he seemed \u2018just as confused as I was\u2019.<\/p>\n

This is clearly \u2018not a good sign\u2019 for Tsunoda\u2019s future. The Red Bull boss couldn\u2019t even offer an explanation as to why he was so far below par.<\/p>\n

Hadjar is \u2018almost certain\u2019 to replace him, while Alex Dunne could land a Racing Bulls seat<\/a> alongside Arvid Lindblad. That would dump Tsunoda off the grid.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris\u2019 subtle dig at Red Bull struggler Yuki Tsunoda<\/p>\n

Tsunoda could join Aston Martin as a reserve driver<\/a>, utilising his ties to Honda (Aston\u2019s 2026 engine suppliers). Drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon have all previously taken similar routes before returning to a full-time role.<\/p>\n

Red Bull are sympathetic to Tsunoda<\/a> because they now acknowledge that their car is difficult to drive, having seen multiple highly-rated stars struggle next to Verstappen. But even in that context, they\u2019d expect better.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris thinks Tsunoda is hurting Verstappen\u2019s title bid<\/a>, even though he isn\u2019t posing a threat. He doesn\u2019t have a teammate who can \u2018push\u2019 him to the next level, as Norris does in the form of Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Yuki Tsunoda is fighting not just for his Red Bull future, but for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,13492,371,101,56,54,55,7942],"class_list":["post-201357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-laurent-mekies","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201357","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=201357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}