‘Upward trend’: Marko cool on Tsunoda as Red Bull delays call on 2026
Yuki Tsunoda put in the kind of Sunday you keep on the desktop for contract talks, but Red Bull isn’t rushing to sign anything. Helmut Marko liked what he saw in Austin. He also made it clear the only immediate priority sits on Max Verstappen’s side of the garage.
Tsunoda, parachuted into the senior team at short notice this year, hauled himself from 13th on the grid to seventh at Circuit of the Americas despite a skirmish with Oliver Bearman. It was the sort of tidy, resourceful drive that’s been a rarer headline in recent weeks, and it earned a nod from Red Bull’s motorsport advisor.
“He had a very good start and was competitive when he had a clear run,” Marko told Sky Deutschland. “So there is an upward trend there as well. He’s stabilising and that’s very important in the world championship fight.”
That last line says a lot. Tsunoda’s fate is being judged against a championship picture, not a vacuum. Max Verstappen is the only Red Bull driver already locked in for the future, and the team’s title push naturally suffocates everything else. Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson are all angling to be in the two Red Bull seats next year, while Arvid Lindblad’s momentum in the junior ranks continues to rattle the pipeline. Plenty of talent, not many chairs.
Internally, the timing hasn’t changed. Red Bull intends to make its call after the next Grand Prix, with the 2026 lineup conversations—engine regs, new cycle and all—officially parked until the title dust settles.
“That’s not our priority at the moment,” Marko said. “In general, this is planned. Let’s see to what extent we can decide then.”
For Tsunoda, who’s had to measure himself against the most relentless yardstick in modern F1, the brief is simple enough: keep stacking points. Austin helped. The recovery through the pack came with good race pace, calm tyre work, and just enough aggression to earn track position without tipping over the edge—something Tsunoda has been accused of flirting with since his rookie days.
“My pace was really, really good,” he said post-race. “I was able to make up a few positions in the first few laps, and my overall pace wasn’t bad. I could have done a little better in the second stint – I think I managed it a little too much – but it was positive to get points in both races this weekend. We need to keep doing that.”
The bigger picture is painfully clear to him too. “Yes, it’s definitely important because that’s what I have to do,” he said when asked if results will decide his future. “It’s also very important to fight to move up in the constructors’ championship. The team hasn’t given up – and of course we haven’t given up on Max’s championship either.”
That pragmatism is new-season Tsunoda, not year-one Tsunoda. The fire’s still there, just tempered by the reality of where Red Bull is operating: first laps matter, but qualifying matters more, because you can’t win a fight you start too far back from. “Especially now we have to focus on improving our short runs,” he added. “I don’t think we can attack like that on the first lap every time, so our main goal now is to start from further forward and fight with the top teams.”
The numbers this season haven’t been kind to him next to Verstappen—few can survive that comparison—but they aren’t the whole story either. Austin hinted at a driver who’s found a better handle on a car that was never designed with him in mind. If the “upward trend” Marko flagged becomes habit rather than headline, Tsunoda’s case gets stronger by the lap.
Still, the Red Bull ecosystem is what it is: unforgiving, overflowing with talent and prone to sudden plot twists. Hadjar and Lawson both have admirers inside the building; Lindblad is banging on the door with the enthusiasm of a teenager who didn’t read the “do not disturb” sign. In that company, Tsunoda needs more Sundays like Austin and fewer Saturdays that leave him with a mountain to climb.
The decision clock is ticking, but not loudly. Red Bull will keep its eyes on the title and let the driver market sweat a little longer. Tsunoda, for his part, knows the cure. Qualify higher. Score again. Make the next choice a hard one.
