Yuki Tsunoda given ‘quite clear’ Red Bull targets amid ‘matter of time’ warning

Yuki Tsunoda said it is “quite clear” what he must do to retain his Red Bull seat, as a decision over the F1 2026 line-ups moves closer.

With Red Bull driver programme boss Helmut Marko having teased finalisation no later than October, Tsunoda suggested repeats of his Baku performances are the target to keep his name in the hunt. However, having failed to carry that momentum through Singapore, Formula E racer Sam Bird suggested it is a “matter of time” before Tsunoda is out at Red Bull.

Yuki Tsunoda: Does he have a Red Bull future?

Tsunoda secured an impressive sixth-place finish around the Baku City Circuit, a timely step forward for the Japanese racer, who has found himself the latest Max Verstappen teammate flirting with the Red Bull exit door, in what has been a challenging experience with the senior team. Qualifying P15 and finishing P12 in Singapore was not the follow-up Tsunoda had in mind.

That performance had Bird casting a grim Tsunoda prediction as he spoke on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast.

“It’s only a matter of time now before he vacates that seat,” Bird said of Tsunoda. “It’s a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’ Is it going to happen during the end of this season?

“Would they give someone like Isack Hadjar a chance and go, ‘Look, you’ve got six races now at the big team; there’s no pressure. Get settled in. Learn about your engineer, learn about the way that they work. Learn about how to cope with the Max Verstappen car that we will build you in the future — because we’re not going to build you a car. We’re going to build Max Verstappen a car and see if you can hang onto it.”

Ahead of the Singapore GP, Tsunoda explained how he can keep himself in the mix for an F1 2026 seat with one of the Red Bull teams.

“The thing I have to do is quite clear,” he said. “I’ve just shown just those things, I guess, [at] one race so far, well, an especially good one, like P6.

“But so far, at least, as soon as I came here for the second-half of the season, I think Q3 is there, points is there. So at least in a right direction. So I’m showing at least I’m able to improve from the first-half of the season much more than I did.

“So yeah, just keep what I’m doing. I obviously want to have more, but I think those things will come with the efforts and obviously, also how much I can put it all together more.

“But I think confidence, and I think understanding about the car, those things, it’s getting better and better. I just have to put it all together. But I think, yeah, definitely right direction.

“And what I got in that race [in Baku] was slightly a bit different to others, which for me, other races were a bit more coming from sometimes luck or whatever. But I feel like that race, I just got that P6 without any, I would say, luck or anything. So that’s good.”

How F1 2026 is shaping up

👉 F1 2026: Confirmed teams and power unit suppliers for F1’s huge regulation changes

👉 F1 2026 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2026 grid?

Competing for his Red Bull, and perhaps F1 future in general, Tsunoda has been reunited with former Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies, who took over as Red Bull Racing chief from Christian Horner in the summer.

Tsunoda offered an insight into the impact which Mekies has already had on his Red Bull career.

“He helped me [with] a lot of things, especially, like, for example, the setup what I tried two races ago was the things I was doing almost every race in VCARB, but I forgot that kind of specific setup I was having all the time.

“Because, I thought that was default. But, when it comes to the teams, how they set up was different.

“Laurent gives us the engineering side, that ‘Okay, Yuki was doing kind of these things to add some extra performance, from one of the either axle to drive it around the corners.’ And when I try it in the Red Bull car, it actually still works, and actually the feeling from the car that I can get is much more familiar, what I used to have, and able to feel slightly a bit more than previous races.

“So those things without probably Laurent’s idea, I wouldn’t be able to come up with that idea, and that’s what I appreciate.

“And also as a relationship side, it’s always good. It’s like literally what I used to have in VCARB, and it feels exactly the same, and just the team logo feels just different when I speak with him. So it’s really, really good.”

Racing Bulls rookie Hadjar has emerged as a strong contender to partner Verstappen at Red Bull from F1 2026. Tsunoda and Liam Lawson face potential competition for a spot at Racing Bulls, with Arvid Lindblad and Alex Dunne linked to the seats.

Read next: Liam Lawson’s Red Bull ‘on hold’ expectation as major F1 enjoyment admission made