Christian Horner has refused to guarantee that Yuki Tsunoda will still be in the RB21 come the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, saying “I don’t want to answer it”.

Red Bull announced in December that Lawson had been promoted to the senior team despite having only contested 11 Grands Prix in his fledgling F1 career as a substitute driver.

Will Yuki Tsunoda see out the season with Red Bull?

Two races into the season, the New Zealander was dropped back into the Racing Bulls driver line-up as his confidence spiralled amidst a difficult start to the campaign in which he failed to trouble the top 10.

Red Bull opted to swap Lawson with the far more experienced Tsunoda, who quickly achieved several firsts for the second RB21 with a first Q2 appearance, then Q1 and finally points.

But in total, he’s managed just seven points.

Although Tsunoda’s form in his early Red Bull races seemed to be building momentum each weekend, in the last three races he’s failed to make it through to qualifying’s pole position shoot-out and was twice P20 on the grid having crashed in Imola while he was just slow in Spain.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says it is a situation that Red Bull need to “question internally”.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

👉 The results of the F1 2025 championship

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

Marko, though, says there are mitigating reasons for Tsunoda’s troubles.

“An aspect not to be overlooked,” Marko explained to the Italian edition of Motorsport.com, “is that our cars are often a disaster on Friday. And then we manage to fix them before qualifying – some rather significant setup changes are necessary.

“Max adapts immediately, while Yuki would need a few laps to gain confidence. But if you’re already in qualifying, there’s no time to adapt.

“It must be said that in Barcelona, he did not have the same technical specifications on his RB21. Due to his bad accident in Imola.”

“In terms of the car,” he added, “Yuki was penalised by two or three tenths.”

Tsunoda was six-tenths down on Verstappen in Q1 at Barcelona and only reached a high of P12 in the Grand Prix before falling back to 13th.

Horner, speaking to the media even before Tsunoda’s qualifying, refused to say whether or not the Japanese driver would see out the season with Red Bull.

“I think I’m going to take a leaf out of Flavio’s book and say, ‘I don’t want to answer it’,” Horner said in Spain.

“Look, it’s early days for Yuki. He’s still settling in. He’s been in Q3, scored points, he’s scored points from the pit lane. He’s had a few incidents as well, so he has a long way to go.

“We’ll decide. We’ve got plenty of time on our side.

“I think the only thing that we can do is give him time and support and try and get a set-up that he’s got confidence in. Driving these cars is all about confidence, and that’s what he needs to find. I think he’ll get there.

“He’s fast. He’s just got to piece it all together. We keep seeing flashes of performance. We just need to see him put it all together. I think he’s capable of that.”

Red Bull have Isack Hadjar waiting in the wings at Racing Bulls where the rookie has scored 21 points and has qualified inside the top ten five times, including a current three-race Q3 streak.

Read next: Wild Verstappen rumour triggers ‘next time I see him’ Marko response