Back onto the same spec RB21 parts as Max Verstappen, Helmut Marko has told Yuki Tsunoda that “everything is hard”, but the time has come to score big points for Red Bull.

Tsunoda joined Red Bull ahead of round three of the F1 2025 championship, called up to replace the beleaguered Liam Lawson after his wretched start to the campaign.

Yuki Tsunoda has no excuses in Montreal…

But while Tsunoda achieved many firsts for the second RB21, first Q2 and then Q3 appearance as well as the first points, in total he’s scored just seven points in seven races.

Such has been Tsunoda’s struggles, F1’s rumour mill has speculated that Racing Bulls surprise sensation Isack Hadjar could replace him before the season is over.

The pressure, it’s fair to say, is on – both for the driver and Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings.

Tsunoda has been given a boost ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend with Marko revealing he’ll run the same spec RB21 as Max Verstappen.

Red Bull team-mates: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Tsunoda was briefly on a par with his team-mate but destroyed his car in qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which forced Red Bull to revert to older spec parts, including the floor, for the Japanese driver.

Marko has made it clear to Tsunoda that he expects a better performance from the driver in Montreal.

The Red Bull motorsport advisor told Kronen Zeitung: “Yuki now gets the same parts as Max. After his crash in Imola, we couldn’t race with two identical cars.

“Now we hope he can learn something from Max.”

“Everything is hard,” he ominously continued, “Yuki must finally score points.”

Tsunoda was P15 in Friday’s practice at the Canadian Grand Prix with Verstappen ninth, the team-mates separated by 0.273s.

However, the former Racing Bulls driver hinted that he was still running the old spec parts on Friday, with “something” coming ahead of Saturday’s final practice.

“I think the feeling is, okay,” Tsunoda told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I know there’s something to come in for tomorrow [Saturday] which is good, that will give hopefully a bit of lap time there, free lap time.

“Other than that, yeah, I think it was good progress in terms of setup. Obviously, not enough in the end. So, yeah, definitely, let’s find out and improve from tomorrow [Saturday]”

“I definitely have to be in Q3,” he added. “That’s the target. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.

“Like I said, there’s something to come tomorrow [on Saturday]. And, yeah, let’s see how the [car] behaviour is with that.”

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