In recent weeks, Yuki Tsunoda’s future with Red Bull F1 has gone under scrutiny. With questions circling on whether he will be a part of the Red Bull family in 2026, Tsunoda responded. Ahead of the F1 Singapore GP, the Japanese driver reflected on his journey with Red Bull. He even went as far as to speak about his future with the team.
The trajectory to remain in a Red Bull team in 2026
For Tsunoda, it is clear what needs to be done in order to remain in a Red Bull team. He dismissed the assumption of conversations between himself, Helmut, and Red Bull following the Baku GP. After finishing P6 in Baku, it is clear Tsunoda has found his pace within Red Bull.
He acknowledged that the second half of his season has been much stronger than the first half. Tsunoda has begun finding himself in Q3, and point paying positions. This is the track he will aim to stay on, proving the effort and performance from him.
Tsunoda also noted that he has begun to find confidence and understanding of the car. This simply leaves him to find a way to put everything together. Overall, he believes he is headed in the right direction. While many races have been dependent on luck, he doesn’t believe Baku came down to that.
“Yeah, I mean, the Red Bull… Yeah, I didn’t talk with the Helmut really or even Red Bull anyone. But yeah, for me, it’s clear. Well, the thing I have to do is quite clear, you know. I’ve just shown just, you know, those things. I guess one race so far, at least. Well, especially a 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 the right direction.
“So I’m showing at least I’m able to improve from the first half of the season, you know, much more than I did. I’ll just keep what I’m doing. I think, obviously, I want to have more. But I think those things will come with my efforts and also how much I can put it all together more. But I think confidence and, yeah, I think understanding about the car, those things, it starts getting better and better. I just have to put it all together.
“But I think, yeah, definitely in the right direction. And what I got in that race 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.”
Finding the ideal set up for his Red Bull
Tsunoda was questioned on whether his Red Bull set up was more tailored to himself or Verstappen. He confidently responded that his needs have been his focus from the get go. While he can consider Verstappen’s setup, and what works for him, he always focuses on what he needs in order to maximise performance at each circuit.
“It’s anyway, since day one I was only focussing on what I want to have from the car rather than trying to change Max’s setup. But also I still consider what kind of setup he is doing, because they are also always able to manage to extract performance from each track almost maximum from the setup and everything. So obviously some ideas and what kind of car I want will be there from FP1.
“But also I will definitely consider what they are doing in terms of setup changing and try to combine both ways. And that’s what we are trying to do since day one, and actually that kind of quality got better and better. And also naturally I started to adapt more to Red Bull and able to drive more on the limit and naturally become slightly more closer to Max’s setup, which is good.”
