‘No one’ at Red Bull expects Yuki Tsunoda to achieve one thing despite now setting ‘low standards’

Yuki Tsunoda has largely justified Red Bull’s decision to demote Liam Lawson back to Racing Bulls, yet questions are already starting to grow for the Japanese star’s place.

The Milton Keynes team made the brutal decision after only the first two rounds of the 2025 F1 season to send Lawson back to Faenza and bring Tsunoda up. Red Bull had initially given the Kiwi the drive Sergio Perez held last year, but he could not deliver in Australia and China.

So, as Red Bull grew frustrated with Lawson’s lack of progress adapting to their RB21’s loose rear end plus him being the slowest driver in both qualifying sessions in China, Tsunoda took over. Yet Max Verstappen continues to show more is possible than his teammate can deliver.

Yuki Tsunoda is not meeting Red Bull’s ‘low standards’ needed to be Max Verstappen’s teammate

Tsunoda has scored points in just two Grands Prix plus one F1 Sprint since joining Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix. Yet Verstappen won the Japanese GP from pole position and the Dutchman got pole at the Saudi Arabian and Miami Grands Prix since the 25-year-old joined.

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Verstappen has even earned 63 of his 99 points in the F1 drivers’ standings through the four rounds in which Tsunoda has spent at Red Bull and only scored nine points. So, Motorsport-Magazin now reports that Tsunoda must improve if he wants to stay at Red Bull next season.

‘No one’ at Red Bull expects Tsunoda to get close to the results that Verstappen produces in the RB21. But his results through the past four rounds fall shy even of the ‘low standards’ that Red Bull have set for their second seat following Lawson’s failure to score a single point.

Tsunoda’s deficit to Verstappen in their four Grands Prix as teammates and their point tallies particularly concern Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team feel Tsunoda scoring just 9.5% of the 63 points Verstappen has in their four Grands Prix as teammates is ‘too big’ after earning six.

Yuki Tsunoda has only finished ahead of Max Verstappen once in 19 sessions as teammates

Verstappen failed to score a point in the Miami Sprint after receiving a 10-second penalty for an unsafe release by Red Bull. Tsunoda also inherited three points for P6 in the Miami Sprint as Williams’ Alex Albon, Racing Bulls’ Lawson and Haas’ Oliver Bearman also drew penalties.

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It was the first and so far only time that Tsunoda has finished above Verstappen in the final classifications of any session since they became teammates at Red Bull. The only other time that Tsunoda has been Red Bull’s lead driver was in FP1 in Bahrain as Ayumu Iwasa stood in.

Also, Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko claims Tsunoda ‘still makes mistakes’ when he feels pressure after watching the Kanagawa native in Miami. He did not reach SQ2 for the Sprint and his lap time in SQ1 was 1.293 seconds slower than Verstappen to bow out in P18.

His single-lap pace deficit was also still 0.739s down on Verstappen’s pole position lap in Q3 as Tsunoda qualified P10 for the Miami GP, which he finished in P10 and 74.434s behind the four-time reigning champion in P4. His deficits are now even worse than Perez had last year.