Yuki Tsunoda believes that it’s not fair to compare himself to Red Bull F1 teammate and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, stating that direct comparisons can’t be made since they don’t have the same car.
Tsunoda: “I’m just focused on myself”
Tsunoda was promoted up to the Red Bull seat alongside Verstappen after former driver Liam Lawson failed to impress from the start of the season.
His first race with the Austrian team was the Japanese GP, his home race. Since then, Tsunoda has only managed to finish higher than Verstappen in a single Grand Prix – the Austrian GP, in which Verstappen collided with Kimi Antonelli in a first-lap incident that ended his race prematurely.
Tsunoda is not the only driver to have struggled against a dominant Verstappen in recent years. Indeed, Liam Lawson was demoted from Red Bull after just two rounds of the 2025 season, having replaced Sergio Perez, who finished 285 points behind Verstappen in last year’s championship.
Asked about his half a season working alongside Verstappen during media day at the F1 Hungarian GP, Tsunoda was not short of praise for the current World Champion.
“I have to say, he’s probably the best driver on the grid,” he said.
“How he always extracts performance from every session, every round; he’s very impressive. It’s not things that you can do very easily. It looks like he does it very easily.”
However, Tsunoda shot down questions about how he compares himself to his teammate. He stated it wouldn’t be fair to do so, citing Verstappen’s experience in the car he drives, and differences between the equipment the two drivers are given.
“At the same time, I don’t think it’s really fair to compare. I don’t know how to compare to him,” he said.
“I know that he’s been here nine years with that car, and I’m driving a different car. Let’s see if I get that from the same car. At that point, I can compare directly.
“But until then, I’m just focused on myself because I know clearly what I can improve. And I just progress in my own way. Step by step.”
Tsunoda: There is “clear progress” being made in his garage
It’s clear that having a driver like Verstappen as your teammate will have a huge impact, whether it’s positive or negative. Tsunoda focused on the positives, confirming how much he’s had to learn in a short space of time.
“The good thing about being with [Verstappen], it’s just having to learn a lot of things, very quickly,” he said. “Because he does a lot of things that I’ve never done. And he’s always able to give a reference, so that I can confirm something. That I can try something.
“From my side, he’s just a good driver.”
But despite the learning curve, Tsunoda has struggled to deliver the pace expected of Red Bull. When asked if he thinks he can make any more impact with the car, he stated that progress is being made, but it’s merely comparable to what he was achieving in earlier rounds.
“I’m doing exactly the same things that I was doing since the previous races,” he said. “And I don’t think I’ve changed anything. I’m just focusing on that.”
That said, Tsunoda didn’t deny that his lack of results has been a cause for concern. But he was confident that Red Bull will be able to identify what can be improved, and will find themselves in a positive position once again.
“I was a little bit [frustrated], because at this point it’s not ideal at all,” he said.
“One thing I’m pleased about definitely, at least in my engineering side – in my side of the garage – at least we know that there’s clear progress and a clear pace. It’s just a comparable thing, that we’re having a good pace.
“But obviously very frustrated, it’s hard to see. It’s just not good results. That I’m not able to see that I’m in Q3.”
He continued: “We know that this is… a bit of a game.
“But at least we’re going to have a clear step [to make]. And we knew that we’re going to be back in that position that the team wants.”
