Tsunoda finds his groove in Baku — and gives Red Bull something to think about
Yuki Tsunoda didn’t need fireworks in Baku. He needed a clean, convincing Sunday — and a car that finally did what he asked of it. Sixth place might not make headlines in a season where Red Bull’s RB21 has looked touchy and temperamental, but for Tsunoda it was a breakthrough. More importantly, it sounded like one.
“The work is paying off,” he said after the flag, talking less about relief and more about momentum. He called the Azerbaijan Grand Prix “good for me,” and it read like a message aimed squarely at the people who’ll decide his future.
This wasn’t a race that invited heroics. Gusty winds, opportunistic walls, and a running order that threw up as many traps as chances. The kind of day Baku specializes in. Plenty got caught out; Tsunoda made it count.
That wasn’t a given a few weeks ago. The transition into Red Bull’s lineup this season has been sticky at times, with Tsunoda feeling at odds with the RB21’s window. But after a floor upgrade arrived at Monza, he says something clicked — and he’s been building from there.
“Definitely, I unlocked something in Monza,” he explained. “I proved it in FP2 and the long runs. Qualifying isn’t at Max’s level yet — step by step — but I wasn’t as far behind as the previous weekends. I’ve put in extra work, more simulator time, and it’s paying off a little. I’ll keep doing it.”
That new baseline showed in Baku. Tsunoda managed the hard tyre well, handled the late pressure, and — crucially — didn’t overreach. Liam Lawson did get him near the end, but Tsunoda kept championship leader Lando Norris behind in the closing laps. Given the stakes, that mattered more than a last-ditch dive for P5.
“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “On the mediums I had the used tyre from qualifying, it overheated quickly. I had chances to do a dive bomb on Liam, but if I lose the position to Lando — or both — that hurts Red Bull. The most important thing was to keep McLaren behind. So finishing P6 and not letting Lando in front of me — I think I did the right thing.”
That’s the tension Tsunoda is navigating right now: prove the pace, but prove the judgement too. He’s a Honda-backed driver in a team preparing for a Ford era, and the Red Bull pipeline is crowded with ambition — Lawson, Isack Hadjar, and beyond. Helmut Marko’s hinted at clarity around the Mexico City Grand Prix. Every weekend is a referendum.
Baku will help his case. It wasn’t just the points total, it was the shape of the result — fast on the long runs, tidy under pressure, selective about where to plant a risk. The kind of Sunday that makes a team believe there’s more lap time to come as the setup settles and the upgrades continue doing their job.
There’s also the feel of a change in tone from Tsunoda himself. The impatience is still there — you can hear it when he talks about wanting to go for “hero” moves — but the decision-making’s quieter now, leaner. He knows the RB21 will bite if you ask too much of it, and he’s learned where to push.
Red Bull won’t pick next year’s line-up off one result, but this one was well-timed. The calendar’s shifting into its decisive phase, the politics are humming, and the team needs its second car to be a banker on Sundays. In Baku, Tsunoda looked like he could be that. Not perfect, not yet. But trending in the right direction — and finally making the RB21 feel like his.
