With Max Verstappen’s Spanish Grand Prix success pointed out to him, Yuki Tsunoda made it clear that his focus is solely on himself with work to do on his Red Bull career.

Verstappen will be out to claim a fourth consecutive victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend, and fifth overall, and while Verstappen’s form at this track is “good news”, Tsunoda does not have time to look outside of his own driving, after a mixed start to life as a Red Bull Racing driver.

Tsunoda ‘focusing on myself’ rather than Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen

Tsunoda received his long-awaited Red Bull promotion in time for his home race at Suzuka, Red Bull making the call to demote Liam Lawson back to Racing Bulls after just two grands prix, with Tsunoda moving the other way.

But Tsunoda’s career with the senior Red Bull squad is yet to fully ignite, with a P9 finish in Bahrain his best result so far, while Verstappen has claimed a pair of race wins in their time together as team-mates so far.

And this weekend Verstappen is unleashed on a track where he has experienced great success. Victorious in Barcelona on his Red Bull debut in 2016, Verstappen has won the last three Spanish GPs, the fact he is going for four in a row mentioned to Tsunoda in a press conference ahead of the race weekend.

However, while Tsunoda acknowledged and applauded that winning streak for Verstappen, he stressed that he has himself to worry about, as he explained the areas where room for improvement remains if he is to gel with the Red Bull RB21.

“I’m still building the progress in terms of confidence and everything,” said Tsunoda.

“I mean, understanding about the car is getting there. Just, you know, the last few tenths, few milliseconds, especially when you want the track evolution, you want to naturally feel it, right? And those things when you sometimes change set-up, you want to know what kind of balance you’re going to get. And obviously, with a new car, it’s just hard to know exactly how the car is going to behave.

“In those things it comes down to experience. And obviously, last four years with VCARB, I knew exactly what’s going to happen, so I didn’t really have to even think about those things. I would naturally react and drive fast. So I think those things will come.

“I think the Imola thing just made me re-recognise (sic) the amount of understanding I currently have. I was probably slightly underestimating how important it is to know those areas especially. So it’s not that I’ve lost confidence or whatever, but just slowly building up and we’ll be there at some point.

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

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

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

“To be honest, Monaco was pretty good until qualifying. Yeah, red flag and lots of things didn’t go to plan. Obviously, it’s always hard to be on the plan and there was definitely a lap that I could have done slightly better. So in that sense, yeah, qualifying was very tough for us, tough for me especially. But at least until FP2, FP3, I was fighting quite close, and to be honest, the pace was probably best ever. So, it’s getting there.

“And Barcelona – yeah, I mean, I didn’t see much history about the Red Bull winning here, but you said four times he’s won, that’s good news. But I just keep focusing on myself rather than Max.”

Tsunoda sits P13 in the Drivers’ Championship with 10 points scored, while Verstappen is piecing together his push for a fifth straight Drivers’ title. He holds P3, 25 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.

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