Yuki Tsunoda drops clue Red Bull believe Max Verstappen can still win F1 title

Yuki Tsunoda’s tactics at the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix suggest that Red Bull firmly believe Max Verstappen has a shot at winning the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship.

Tsunoda enjoyed his strongest weekend as a Red Bull driver.

The Japanese driver qualified and finished sixth in Baku, his best result since replacing Liam Lawson at Suzuka.

Tsunoda probably should have finished higher.

He initially rejoined the race in fifth having made a late pit stop to switch to medium tyres.

However, due to cold tyres, Lawson got ahead of him into Turn 3.

Tsunoda attacked Lawson but couldn’t make a move on him.

During the end of the race, Tsunoda had Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton close behind.

Speaking to F1 TV afterwards, Tsunoda highlighted the importance of keeping Norris behind, which impacted how much he attacked Lawson ahead.

“Especially [with a] McLaren behind, [I was] thinking about the championship, both the team and drivers’ championship for Max,” Tsunoda said.

“There were a lot of opportunities I could probably go inside and attack Liam, but there’s a lot more risk that maybe the McLaren will overtake both of us, or either [of us],” he said.

“So I think as a Red Bull [driver], you don’t want to have that, and I think I did the right decision [by] not challenging him. But at the same time I didn’t have enough pace also to overtake comfortably.”

Tsunoda has “more confidence”

The Baku weekend appeared to be a major breakthrough for Tsunoda.

While Tsunoda has made gains over one lap in recent races, his deficit to Verstappen in races was enormous.

Tsunoda was pleased that his work on improving his race pace seems to be paying off after a strong showing on Sunday.

“It’s something that gives me more confidence in the future,” he added. “We made a couple of changes to the car. I got [a lot of] support from the team.

“Also I put some effort into my long run. Last week I saw some trends that Max is doing a little bit differently compared to myself and I had the idea and immediately translated it to the simulator and I felt something good there.

“But obviously translating it onto this real track is a [very] different story. I was able to try some multiple steps and FP2 showed some good steps with that. It paid [off] really [well] from the simulator.

“It’s not the level that I want yet, but I think from the changes to the car, it helps a lot for myself. Also, some bits from my driving style matches well with these changes so I’ll just keep what I’m doing now and progress more.”