Yuki Tsunoda now trying to avoid Red Bull’s biggest ‘trap’ with latest behind the scenes F1 car decision

For the third race in succession, Yuki Tsunoda failed to score a point for Red Bull Racing at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda is still waiting to finish in the top eight of a Grand Prix since his promotion to Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Japanese driver once again started at the back of the grid after Tsunoda picked up a 10-place grid penalty during practice for overtaking Oscar Piastri under a red flag and then failing to reach Q3.

Nico Rosberg has worried about Tsunoda during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend and although he made up several places during the race, he couldn’t secure a much-needed top 10 finish.

Tsunoda doesn’t have a contract for the 2026 F1 season and currently isn’t doing much to convince Christian Horner or Helmut Marko that he deserves another season on the grid.

That creates another conundrum for Red Bull as they search for Max Verstappen’s perfect teammate, with Isack Hadjar considered the favoured candidate to step up from Racing Bulls next year.

However, Tsunoda appears to be making some decisions behind the scenes that are helping him bridge the gap with Verstappen.

Journalist Jon Noble believes Tsunoda has adapted how he sets up the RB21 to try and maximise his performance rather than trying to extract the ultimate potential out of a very difficult-to-drive car.

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Yuki Tsunoda now trying to avoid Red Bull ‘trap’ with latest set-up decision

Noble was asked on The Race F1 Podcast whether it was unusual for Tsunoda to have been beaten by Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon on the same strategy while speaking on The Race F1 Podcast.

He suggested: “On paper, yes. Because Yuki Tsunoda is in a Red Bull car that in effect is good enough to fight for race victories.

“So you shouldn’t be down there in the first place, but he had another weekend where it didn’t click.

“He got involved in that kind of needless overtaking of Oscar Piastri in FP3 that earned him a grid penalty that dropped him to the back of the grid because he failed to get into Q3.

“And then always starting at the back like that, you’re trapped in traffic. It’s quite hard to make progress. So he should have done better.

“But I think on the flip side, there are some kind of tiny glimmers of progress now from Yuki.

“He’s finally on the same upgrade as Max after trashing it originally in Imola. So he’s finally got the same spec.

“He’s now started working on his own kind of setup direction to try to unlock a bit more of that rather than what Christian Horner says is the trap of what Max Verstappen’s previous teammates have done is try to use Max’s setup and try and beat him that way or get close to him that way, which just doesn’t work.

“So I think now, Yuki needs to bed down, get a consistent weekend, not have a silly moment like crashing Q1 or overtaking under a red flag in practice.

“Just get a full weekend of consistency, get into Q3, deliver some points, [and] start making progress.”

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Yuki Tsunoda failed to live up to Helmut Marko target at the Canadian Grand Prix

Tsunoda currently sits 15th in the drivers’ championship after 10 races, with only seven of his 10 points scored during his time at Red Bull.

Although both Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson were well off the pace of where they needed to be alongside Verstappen, Tsunoda is also failing to hit the heights expected of a Red Bull driver.

Marko demanded Tsunoda score points in Canada but his 10-place penalty was always going to make that difficult.

However, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz both managed to achieve that feat with the same strategy in slower cars.

Red Bull won’t want to drop Tsunoda before the end of the season unless a clear replacement emerges.

Hadjar might be the long-term successor to the 25-year-old, but a promotion at this stage of his career could be detrimental.