Although Sprint qualifying didn’t go to plan for Yuki Tsunoda, Christian Horner says the newest Red Bull driver is doing a “nice job”.

He puts that down to Tsunoda focusing on his own performances, rather than obsessing over what the other side of the garage is doing.

Has Yuki Tsunoda found the key to Red Bull success?

Tsunoda was announced as Max Verstappen’s sixth Red Bull Racing team-mate when he was called up to replace Liam Lawson ahead of round three of the F1 2025 championship, Red Bull declaring they had a “care of duty” to Lawson to remove him from a pressurised situation in which he was floundering.

But while Tsunoda has yet to match Verstappen out on track, scoring two points to the Dutchman’s 51, he has made inroads as he has twice put the second RB21 inside the top ten in qualifying and also scored points.

His Q3 run came to an end in Miami on Friday evening when “some intelligent car just came out from the pits and I [had to] abort my lap”, he told the media including PlanetF1.com, before “pretty poor” communication from Red Bull meant he exited the pits too late for a second run in Q1.

He qualified 18th for the Miami Sprint race, whereas Verstappen will line up fourth on the grid.

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But despite the upset, Red Bull team principal Horner believes Tsunoda is slowly but surely making progress. And his secret to that is focusing solely on his own form and not worrying about what Verstappen is doing on the other side of the Red Bull garage.

“Look, he’s in his fifth year, and so he’s done quite a few races now. He understands how it works,” he told Sky F1.

“And what I’ve noticed with him, he’s not obsessing what Max is doing. He’s just focusing on his own setup with his engineer, and not trying to mirror what’s going on on the other side of the garage, which I think is the right approach.”

An approach that’s benefitting from having more time behind the wheel with Tsunoda doing a private test in the title-winning RB19 at the Silverstone circuit ahead of Miami.

“I think it’s just more seat time,” Horner added. “Him getting used to the engineering, the way that the team works and so on.

“I think he’s doing a nice job, and, yeah, he’s put a really positive energy into the team. You know, he’s a character.

“He’s offering some really useful feedback as well, which is giving a good direction.”

But while Horner is happy with Tsunoda’s progress, who has been told he’ll be in the RB21 for the remainder of the season, what happens next in F1 2026 has yet to be decided.

Red Bull may already have his replacement lined up in Racing Bulls’ sensation Isack Hadjar, who Helmut Marko has talked up as the next “big one”.

“Hadjar has completed the fewest test kilometres in Formula 1 cars and still competes with Antonelli and the like… Here comes a really big one,” he told Sky Deutschland.

Hadjar has scored points in two of five Grands Prix, with Horner also impressed with the 20-year-old’s performance.

“He’s exceeded all of our expectations,” he said. I mean, he’s looked really very impressive so far this season, and particularly at tracks he’s not been to. He’s very little mileage in a Grand Prix car at all so, and he’s taken to it like a duck to water. So he’s been, been very impressive so far.

“He’s very together.

“I mean, I think this crop of juniors that are coming in now, you can see they’re just ready to adapt to Formula One, and they’re full of confidence, they’re full of energy.

“And, yeah, Isack has driven brilliantly so far this year at pretty much all-new circuits to him.”

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