Tsunoda’s ‘four year’ admission with Red Bull F1 seat on the line
Yuki Tsunoda appears to still have a chance at holding onto his Red Bull seat for F1 2026.
Told to pick up the pace in Baku, Yuki Tsunoda reckons his calm and measured approach is yet another sign to Red Bull that the hot headiness of yesteryear is no longer.
Racing for Red Bull’s sister team in the first four years of his F1 career, Tsunoda was called out by Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko for his radio messages.
Yuki Tsunoda: I’ve improved in discipline compared to four years ago
“That, said Marko, “didn’t help the team.
“He doesn’t care about anything. He’s very emotional. If you swear and curse in the middle of a corner, that’s not good.
“We explained that to him that he has to stop it. In addition, the engineer can’t do anything with feedback like ‘bloody f*cking car’.
“We have to know what exactly is the car doing. He has to analyse that and then say it factually.”
He managed a career high P12 in 2022 before slumping to 17th and 30th
Three years on from that criticism, Tsunoda believes he highlighted how far he has come, not only in terms of ability but also attitude, with his P6 result at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The under-fire Red Bull driver recorded a season’s best result of P6 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In the midst of a race of DRS trains and hurry-up messages, Tsunoda was told to ‘pick up the pace’ as he chased down Liam Lawson for P5.
But instead of yesteryear’s rant about how he’s doing everything he can, Tsunoda calmly told Red Bull he was on the job.
Yuki Tsunoda v Liam Lawson: F1 2025 head-to-head stats
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
“Four years ago I would have said: ‘I’m doing it!’ very loudly on the radio,” he told DAZN.
“But I’ve progressed in that aspect of my personality, I’ve improved my calmness and was able to close the gap little by little in the corners. I thought I couldn’t improve much more but I kept doing it bit by bit.
“I think I’ve improved in discipline compared to four years ago.”
And that is an important point given it has been cited as one of the reasons Red Bull may have been wary in the past about promoting the Japanese driver.
Recording a season’s best P6 in Baku, Tsunoda said: “The pace was good, different to other weekends.
“I already had a feeling since FP2 and the team supported me a lot. We made changes to the car that helped me improve my long runs. We were able to show that with this final result.
“Obviously, I’m still not where I want to be, but we’re getting there, progressing every race.”
Tsunoda is up to 17th place in the Drivers standings on 20 points, 235 down on his teammate Max Verstappen.
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