“Only a matter of time” before Yuki Tsunoda loses Red Bull F1 seat

Racing driver and pundit Sam Bird has claimed it is “only a matter of time” before Yuki Tsunoda loses his Red Bull F1 seat.

After enjoying a breakthrough weekend in Baku by scoring his best qualifying and race result for Red Bull, Tsunoda endured a torrid Singapore Grand Prix and could only finish 12th following a Q2 elimination. 

Tsunoda was also lapped by Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, who finished second.

Rumours surrounding Tsunoda’s future continue to intensify, with the Japanese driver widely expected to be replaced at Red Bull by Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar for 2026.

With Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad also tipped for F1 promotion at Racing Bulls, Tsunoda is thought to be in a straight shootout against Liam Lawson for the sole-remaining seat at Red Bull’s sister team.

Bird believes it is “just a matter of when, not if” Tsunoda will be dropped.

"He got lapped by his team-mate and by the frontrunners. It’s only a matter of time now before he vacates that seat; it’s just a matter of when, not if,” Bird told the BBC Chequered Flag podcast.

"Is it going to happen before the end of this season? Would they give someone like Isack Hadjar a chance and go, ‘Look, you’ve got six races now with the big team’.

"There’s no pressure, get settled in, learn about your engineer, learn about the way they work, learn about how to cope with the Max Verstappen car that we will build you in the future because we’re not going to build you a car, we’re going to build Max Verstappen a car, and see if you can hang onto it.”

Target is “clear” for Yuki Tsunoda

Tsunoda stressed that he knows exactly what he must do to retain his Red Bull seat.

“I didn’t talk to Helmut, or anyone from Red Bull, after Baku, but for me the target is clear. The thing I have to do is quite clear,” Tsunoda said in Singapore.

“I’ve shown those things in one race so far, at least in one good race with P6.

“But as soon as I came here for the second half of the season, I think the Q3 performances are there and the points are there.

“It’s going in the right direction. I’m at least showing that I’m able to improve myself compared to the first half of the season.”

Tsunoda also credited new Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies for helping him make progress.

“Laurent has helped me with a lot of things. The set-up that I tried two races ago, for example, was the one that I used at almost every race at VCARB,” he explained.

“I kind of forgot about these things, also that specific set-up, as I thought it was default at the previous team.

“When I came to this team, it was different how they set up the car and things like that.”

Tsunoda added: “Laurent told the engineering side ‘Okay, Yuki was doing these kinds of things to add some performance on one of the axles or to drive it around certain corners’.

“When I tried those things in the Red Bull car, they actually still worked. The feeling that I got from the car is much more familiar now, more what I used to have. Without Laurent’s ideas, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with it myself. That’s what I appreciate.

“Also on the relationship side, it’s always been very good. It’s literally what I used to have at VCARB. It feels exactly the same, just the team logos are different now when I speak with him!”