Yuki Tsunoda heads into the Azerbaijan GP and final third of the 2025 F1 season with his future very much up in the air. Isack Hadjar’s podium at Zandvoort and the Japanese driver’s struggles at Red Bull point to the French driver getting a promotion for 2026.
A P13 finish at Monza means the 25-year-old remains on 12 points in the Drivers’ Championship. Only Franco Colapinto and Jack Doohan are behind him at present.
Recently things have been a small bit better for the former AlphaTauri/Racing Bulls driver. He made Q3 at Spa and Monza, and Tsunoda was less than 0.2s slower than Verstappen in Q1 in Hungary on a weekend when Red Bull had no pace compared to their usual form with the Dutchman.
Yuki Tsunoda concedes race pace the area he needs to work on ahead of F1 Azerbaijan GP
After going backwards in the F1 Italian GP from P9 on the grid two weeks ago, Yuki Tsunoda says race pace is the key area to fix presently. However, it is causing some confusion for both him and the team because of balance problems.
On a positive note, he is happier with his pace over a single lap and the gap to Max Verstappen, considering he is racing with a different specification car.
“Just probably long runs is what I have to focus on for now especially. Most of the time, especially Monza, we had a bit of damage as well.
“We also as a team worked hard to understand what was the main issue causing the long run pace.
“And actually free practice the things that we experienced are things that even the team can’t really explain it. That’s the main thing. That’s what we are struggling at.
“In terms of the short run, I am very happy with it. I think the team is very happy.
“It’s clear that I am showing that race by race I am getting close to Max even though there are package differences. I was consistently behind Max in qualifying at two tenths. Apart from Q3 [at Monza], I was leading the [midfield] pack.
“It’s not amazing but I think that is definitely showing well. Definitely people are noticing in this team.
“What I am just lacking, I am working on really really hard on my side and to understand from their side as well for the long run to put it all together. It’s good that every race I am experiencing new things.
“It’s a time that maybe there are not so many things that you can explain, but I am trying a lot of things to make it work and enjoying this process.”
Yuki Tsunoda on the damage sustained in F1 Italian GP and why the long run pace is proving to be such an issue
On lap 29 at Monza, Tsunoda and Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson made contact at the second chicane. The New Zealander was trying to fight back against the Japanese driver after he was overtake seconds before. Ultimately there was an awkward tangle, leading to damage for car #22.
In his F1 Azerbaijan GP print media session, Yuki Tsunoda explained he did not lose lots of time from the damage.
The Red Bull driver went on to explain how he had to drive in the race with a balance he didn’t like after severe tyre wear during practice. He says the team cannot explain why it was so difficult. Tsunoda had used the hard tyre in FP3.
In the race itself he was slow, getting overtaken by Kimi Antonelli and gradually dropping away on mediums in the opening stint. It got even worse on the hards, with the damage a small factor as well. He almost got lapped by race winner and teammate Max Verstappen at the end.
“Specific damage, [from] what I heard is like less than probably three tenths, I think.
“So yeah, I think that was the main thing. And what we know as the main problem is that the damage was there, which is free lap time. So it’s not always ideal.”
Team cannot explain the struggles Yuki Tsunoda had at Monza
“But also what I said just now, we were struggling. Myself, I was struggling with the things that even the team can’t explain it. And we’re trying to sort out those issues.
“And we have to kind of cure those things with the balance, which was not ideal because I was happy with the balance. But just somehow just the tyres [were] wearing like crazy.
“Until FP3, what we tried is to find out what was causing it, what those things were causing the tyre wear issue. But we couldn’t find it.
“So we just had to adjust with the balance, which in a way I didn’t like. And obviously just taking so much performance from the car. But to make it work in the long distance, you have to do it.”
