‘Quite clear’: Tsunoda sets his own bar as Red Bull’s 2026 call nears — but the clock’s still ticking
Yuki Tsunoda doesn’t need a meeting to understand what keeps him in a Red Bull next year. “The thing I have to do is quite clear,” he said in Singapore. Then he spelled it out: string Baku-level weekends together, live in Q3, and make the points tally sing in the second half of the year.
That’s the internal brief as Red Bull edges toward finalising its 2026 line-ups, a decision Helmut Marko has hinted will be wrapped by October. The problem? Singapore didn’t help. After a brilliant sixth in Baku — the type of clean, uncompromising result Tsunoda insists came “without any… luck or anything” — he qualified 15th at Marina Bay and finished 12th. Wrong result, wrong weekend.
It’s exactly the sort of inconsistency that fuels the outside noise, and it’s getting louder. Formula E race winner Sam Bird didn’t bother dressing it up on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast. “It’s only a matter of time now before he vacates that seat,” Bird said. “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… we’re going to build Max Verstappen a car and see if you can hang onto it’?”
It’s a familiar refrain in Milton Keynes: this is Max Verstappen’s world and any teammate has to work out how to live in it. Tsunoda’s argument is that he’s getting there. Since the break, he says the baseline has been solid — “Q3 is there, points is there” — and the understanding of the car is heading in “the right direction.” The Baku result, he added, felt different because it was entirely self-made.
There’s also the Laurent Mekies factor. The pair know each other well from Faenza, and the new Red Bull Racing boss has, according to Tsunoda, already nudged him back toward a setup window that suits. “The setup I tried two races ago was the thing I was doing almost every race in VCARB, but I forgot… When I try it in the Red Bull car, it actually still works,” Tsunoda said. “Without Laurent’s idea, I wouldn’t be able to come up with that.”
The chemistry helps, too. “It’s like literally what I used to have in VCARB… it feels exactly the same, and just the team logo feels just different when I speak with him,” Tsunoda laughed. Familiar voice, familiar feel — and, if you’re Tsunoda, hopefully familiar results.
The stakes are obvious. Red Bull’s pipeline is stacked and impatient. Hadjar has real momentum and, crucially, the right kind of advocates. Liam Lawson is hovering, still rated and still waiting. Down at Racing Bulls, there’s pressure building from Arvid Lindblad and Alex Dunne. With two teams to feed and 2026’s reset looming, every run-plan meeting in the energy station now doubles as a casting call.
So where does that leave Tsunoda? Right where he says he wants to be: judged on execution, not vibes. He doesn’t need miracles, he needs a run. Qualify inside the top 10 more often than not. Cash the Sundays. Make the case that he’s the quickest and most adaptable option alongside Verstappen when the regulations flip.
The timing is ruthless. Miss once, especially on a street track that rewards confidence, and the conversation shifts to who’s next. Hit twice — Baku-style — and the narrative flips just as fast. That’s the reality of the senior team, and Tsunoda knows it.
There’s also a quiet truth embedded in Bird’s critique: Red Bull won’t build a car for Yuki Tsunoda. They’ll build one for Max Verstappen and expect his teammate to meet it on its terms. Of all the drivers in the system, Tsunoda’s speed and racecraft aren’t in doubt anymore. What Red Bull wants to see now is whether he can live with the sharp edges of that environment every weekend.
He says the map is clear. October is around the corner. Two, maybe three big Sundays between now and then, and this conversation looks very different. If not, the talent queue behind him isn’t slowing down. In this part of the paddock, it never does.
