F1 insider drops Yuki Tsunoda future update after Baku breakthrough

Yuki Tsunoda is driving to keep himself within the Red Bull pool, it has been claimed.

That is the view of Sky Sports F1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz, who believes Tsunoda is set to lose his Red Bull seat to Isack Hadjar for the 2026 season.

Hadjar is the favourite to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull next year following an impressive rookie F1 campaign that has seen him claim a maiden podium and outperform both Tsunoda and Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson.

Tsunoda enjoyed a breakthrough weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as he qualified and finished sixth to mark his best result since joining Red Bull, but it doesn’t appear enough to retain his place at the senior team.

“We think that the die is already cast in terms of Isack Hadjar being Max Verstappen’s teammate next year. What is good is that Yuki is effectively driving to keep himself within the Red Bull driver programme at all,” Kravitz told The F1 Show podcast.

“That’s what [Laurent] Mekies was saying in Monza, that they have enough time to see effectively whether Yuki can be a point-scorer once again, or whether it’s time to offload him to another team and bring Arvid Lindblad through.

“The crucial thing was Friday in Baku, Tsunoda did some testing with this new set-up and it worked. He found out what he needed from the car on long runs. It will be a bit of a test in Singapore when there’s higher tyre degradation, because that’s something Tsunoda has struggled with on the long runs.

“Singapore will prove whether Yuki has truly vanquished his tyre problems on the long runs. But crucially, he got it right on the short runs. He was P6 in qualifying and that set him up for where he was in the race.

“So good job Yuki Tsunoda, welcome back Yuki Tsunoda.”

Does Yuki Tsunoda have a future with Red Bull?

Kravitz suspects Tsunoda will be retained by Red Bull, but end up returning to sister team Racing Bulls and reuniting with former teammate Lawson for 2026.

“Is Yuki Red Bull’s guy, or is he Honda’s guy? That’s the question,” Kravitz added.

“Christian Horner and Helmut Marko always felt Yuki was linked to Honda, whereas Yuki was like ‘no, no, I’m a Red Bull guy. Ok I’ve got links to Honda but I’m as Red Bull as you want me to be’.

“It’s whether Mekies, still Marko, and I guess Alan Permane thinks there is future in Yuki, or whether Yuki could get a third drive at Aston Martin-Honda next year, maybe a third-driver role. Maybe that’s the way he wants to go. Does he want to stay in the Honda fold and not necessarily within Red Bull fold.

“I would go with Verstappen and Hadjar [at Red Bull], and then I think Yuki will probably drop down. I think Yuki will have a strong end to the year and Racing Bulls will probably think ‘do you know what, don’t know where we are going to finish in the constructors’.

“It’s going to be behind Williams anyway and they kind of want to beat Williams, so lets get Yuki back if he’s scoring points again, and it’ll be Lawson-Tsunoda in the Racing Bulls.”