Red Bull has made sure Yuki Tsunoda has no doubts over their priority after he became the team’s latest driver.
Tsunoda will team up with Max Verstappen, who lies second in the drivers’ championship after the opening two rounds. Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko said this week they need him to “support Max strategy-wise,” which Tsunoda acknowledged today.The new Red Bull driver said his objective is to “basically be as close to Max as possible, which anyway gives good results for the team, also it allows the team to support other strategies in the race.”
“They’ve clearly said the main priority is Max,” he explained in the FIA press conference at Suzuka, “which I completely understand because he’s a four-times world champion and so far already in the last few races even in difficult situations he performed well.
Tsunoda is Verstappen’s third different team mate in the last four rounds. His predecessors Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez lagged far behind Verstappen’s pace in the Red Bull.
However Tsunoda does not expect his new team mate will offer him much help in understanding how to get the best out of their car.
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“Not really, to be honest, I think even if I tapped his shoulder and asked about the car, I don’t think he’s going to say the truth, you know?” he said. “So I’ll just try to discover it myself in the data, how he’s driving. Also on onboard videos, I already checked multiple videos from him in the last two grands prix.”
He said he hasn’t experienced the car’s “trickiness” so far in his post-season test in last year’s chassis or his simulator runs since joining the team last week. “I’ll feel it myself and I’m sure it also depends on driving style. It will behave a little bit different.
“Once I feel the car, in my five years of experience, I believe that will give me some ideas to sort it out. And if I really struggle, whatever, no, I still don’t think I’ll ask him. I’ll just try to discover it with my engineers.
“So far, they’ve been very helpful. [My engineer] already gave some ideas about what kind of characteristics give drivers very little confidence. That information is already stuck in my head and it’s pretty clear. So I’ll just see how it goes after [first practice].”
While Red Bull showed Lawson the door after just two races, Tsunoda said he hasn’t been given a deadline to get to grips with his new car.
“I didn’t get any specific number of races or time to prove myself,” he explained, saying Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has “been very supportive so far and just mentioned the expectations he has of me – what he wants me to achieve.”
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“The pressure always comes once you hit the track,” continued Tsunoda. “But for now, I feel really relaxed.
“It feels similar to when I was at [racing Bulls]. Once I entered hospitality I was feeling the same, I was only thinking about breakfast. So far I’m not necessarily feeling pressure.
“Those things will come naturally, especially during qualifying [at my] home grand prix. But there’s not much point in feeling pressure. I’m feeling confident and hope I can do something different from other drivers.”
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2025 Japanese Grand Prix
- McLaren has to accept upsetting either of its drivers sometimes – Stella
- Verstappen ‘can test our car, I look forward to seeing his disappointment’ – Norris
- Verstappen insists McLaren domination claim was ‘no joke’ after Piastri’s doubt
- Extra mandatory pit stop won’t create more passing at tracks like Suzuka – Sainz
- Mercedes took note of Verstappen’s out-lap tactics after stunning Suzuka pole position
MarcusAurelius (@marcusaurelius)
3rd April 2025, 9:58
Feels very similar to the Schumacher years at Ferrari (and Benetton)
Ferdi
3rd April 2025, 10:40
Or the Vettel years at RedBull. Or the Hamilton years at Mercedes. Or the Alonso years at Renault. Or the Hakkinen year at McLaren. Or Prost at Williams. Little new(s value) in this at all.
Doggy
3rd April 2025, 11:58
+1 < literally, copy/past from Ferdi
David BR (@david-br)
3rd April 2025, 12:00
Except Max Verstappen has 4 drivers working for him (including himself). 20% of the grid. Which is absurd. Tsunoda made explicit the obvious that he wrecked his own race slowing down Hamilton in 2021. We can expect heaps more of the same this year with Tsunoda sacrificing himself race after race and the Racing Bull drivers all too eager to do the same. Ricciardo taking a point of Norris last year with FLAP from the back of the grid is another example. Timing of pit stops is another tactic they can use 3 times over during races. Essentially Verstappen has a peloton in a race where everyone else outside Red Bull I and II is on their own.
Also the comparison with other drivers fails pretty quickly. All the team mates had their chances but usually weren’t quick enough (and neither Rosberg or Russell were ‘second drivers’). Red Bull make it clear that their other 3 drivers work for Verstappen’s benefit.
Erik
3rd April 2025, 13:29
”Max Verstappen has 4 drivers working for him (including himself)”
What does this even mean? How? Can you please explain yourself how all these drivers are working for him?
Edvaldo
3rd April 2025, 14:31
Does it even need an explanation?
Red Bull has used their 3 other cars to aid Max in some way at various moments, including Ricciardo stealing the fastest lap point from Norris in Singapore last year, so no one could have it.
They’re doing own their race but if they’re in a situation where they can provide a strategic benefit or even just some information to help the lead car (Albon hurting his race in Spain 2020 by going with an absurd tyre choice just to provide info on tyres), they’ll do it.
Erik
3rd April 2025, 13:31
It’s ok if you don’t like Verstappen, it’s your prerogative. But please stop with the nonsense of rying to diminish his standing or accomplishments…makes you look silly and ignorant.
Mr A
3rd April 2025, 22:52
Erik it’s not about diminishing Max’s accomplishments, he was simply (correctly) pointing out that when the going gets real, Verstappen doesn’t just have one team-mate who can be expected to jump out of his way and hold up his competitors, he has two more. That’s not really up for discussion – it’s well evidenced and very clearly the way things are.
Ferdi
4th April 2025, 6:58
Well, I would say if you choose to look at this that way, it is then perfectly balanced out vs the uselessness of Perez the past few years. He was always in the fight alone vs Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren (apart from some drivers aiding by stalling back markers I guess, which can hardly be called significant).
David BR (@david-br)
4th April 2025, 13:24
I like Verstappen! I just don’t think he needs all the extra help. At all.
It’s unarguable that he has three drivers who can be contractually ‘compelled’ by the Red Bull management to help him if possible and when necessary. Sure that doesn’t mean every race or every other race. But as we saw in 2021, both Tsunoda and Pérez played critical roles in a very tight battle between HAM and VER. This season? Who knows. FIA acknowledged the issue by remedying the issue with the FLAP point taken by Ricciardo under Red Bull orders (with insult added to injury with their claim that it was to ‘honour’ DR’s last race).
This season will be very close and both Racing Bull drivers and Tsunoda will be ultra-keen to show their self-sacrificial loyalty to the Max cause. Just undeniable. And yes – for that reason, the luxury of a B team in a ten team championship is absurd. It’s an unfair advantage and I’ve no idea how this has been left to stand when other teams could be participating.
Laz
3rd April 2025, 13:43
You exaggerate quite a lot. Tsunoda said he did that for Honda, and also because he was ahead of Hamilton and wasn’t going to just let him by. Completely fair for him to have done that. Red Bull have not used the other team to try and hold up their competitors. I’m sure you will try to cite something silly like what happened in Zaandvort, but in 20 years of having two teams, there’s inevitably going to be instances where something happens to one team benefits another, be it through ill-timed safety cars or whatever. Yet for every occasion you could possibly cite an example of Red Bull’s second team supposedly helping it’s first team, there is another example where the second team has got in the way. Max’s teammate the driver in the second Red Bull car absolutely is told to work to help Max, but the other team is not, at most they are told to not get in his way.
David BR (@david-br)
4th April 2025, 13:26
You have no proof for that and the evidence is otherwise (viz Ricciardo last year).
An Sionnach
3rd April 2025, 16:46
No, not Prost at Williams. Hill was allowed to race. Prost raced all of his team mates.
When he could, Senna stipulated that he wanted a number two and full use of the spare car. (Not) mysteriously, only those certain fans dislike get flak for this… and ignore it for others. Lewis has not had a similar track record of mainly number twos that Senna, Schumacher and Max have had, but Bottas was clearly there to not trouble Lewis too much.
Jonathan Parkin
3rd April 2025, 17:58
Why? What was he afraid of?
An Sionnach
3rd April 2025, 18:32
Not Dumfries, Nakajima or Berger!
He beat de Angelis by 5 points in 1985 at Lotus, but had been given preferential treatment so de Angelis left the team.
David Heath
4th April 2025, 2:37
Valterri, this is James….
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
3rd April 2025, 19:12
Saying it on the driver’s first race is not the same as implying it. Also, it means that there’s no future on that team. If you overperform you’ll have to explain why and reduce your pace.
Jordan (@hunkulese)
4th April 2025, 0:35
It wasn’t like that at all at Mercedes. Mercedes was always trying to give both of its drivers everything to succeed. During the Rosberg years they’d switch the teams working on each car every season against Hamilton’s wishes. Bottas wasn’t good enough to keep up with Hamilton, but if he was winning races consistently, they would have given him the opportunity to succeed.
Ferdi
4th April 2025, 7:03
Well, it is easier when you have a car that is almost 1sec clear of the field over a single lap for about 7 years in a row. And still they would favour Lewis in the Bottas years.
Jordan (@hunkulese)
4th April 2025, 8:23
Not really. Bottas was given every opportunity to win a driver’s championship, but he couldn’t keep it close to Hamilton. They only started asking him to make concessions for Hamilton after he proved he was the clear number two. He definitely wasn’t ever pulled aside at the beginning of a season and told he was there only to support Hamilton. That’s just the role he naturally ended up with.
Ferdi
4th April 2025, 11:18
So, in line with any other team. Unless you think it would be realistic to assume Yuki could challenge the generational talent with 4 WDCs under his belt. Seems rather political to deny that, so I would say RB is rather transparent and realistic.
El Pollo Loco
3rd April 2025, 11:05
In some major ways, it’s the exact opposite. This particularly applies to the fact that, contrary to the idea of RBR only designing to suit Max, they totally ignored feedback he was giving them to about the car.
The timeline for Max’s dissatisfaction with his feedback seemingly being ignored seems to coincide w/that of Newey’s disagreement w/ the design team about the development path they’d chosen for the RB20, which saw his role marginalized + was likely one of the factors behind his departure.
That + declining competitiveness bring into question the potential of its current design team. Do they still a very strong design corps that simply didn’t fully understand the AN design concept and which led to their car’s decreased competitiveness or are they just generally not that great? If the former, things should improve chassis wise next season. If the latter, they’re going to be in big trouble.
I’m betting they still have a very talented and competent group of engineers who’ll produce a good chassis for 2026. Whether it will be enough to give Max a strong shot at the WDC is another question. McLaren and AMR clearly have the best design teams on the grid. The former has many well known names and have proven their capabilities since 2023 while the latter has the most talent on paper and its success will simply depend whether they can gel into an effective whole that is more than just the sum of its parts. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
In terms of RBR’s handling of the #2 seat, I doubt Max cares nor will it impact if he stays or goes. I think he’s just using it as a vehicle to emphasize RBR should put greater priority in heeding his feedback in future.
MichaelN
3rd April 2025, 11:30
Not really, Ferrari did so much better on their second car than Red Bull. They brought in promising talent, Irvine, Barrichello and Massa, and each of them won races. And not just the “Ferrari is dominant” kind. Barrichello also had Schumacher support him in his bid for 2nd in the championship, something Red Bull and Verstappen infamously didn’t care to do for Pérez. Barrichello was of course also happy to work with Brawn again at Honda.
Verstappen and Schumacher are however similar in how they’re the best of their generation, and can be expected to outscore and even outclass whoever is their teammate.
M2X
3rd April 2025, 11:37
@MichaelN: we all know what Perez did to lose support from Max, besides it wouldn’t have helped Perez to finish one place further up in Brazil.
It’s what is called Too little, too late.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd April 2025, 13:09
Michaeln has a point in that schumacher indeed helped barrichello back (even irvine) on occasion, verstappen didn’t, but as you said, that particular occurance in brazil wouldn’t have been sufficient, as perez would’ve gained 2 points and ended up 3 behind, if I recall.
Craig
3rd April 2025, 15:09
We now what was claimed to be “the reason” but when that reason was looked into it was proven to be utter rubbish.
Imre (@f1mre)
3rd April 2025, 11:14
Red Bull is a Verstappen away from collapsing.
PacificPR (@streydt)
3rd April 2025, 11:31
Haha. Indeed. Wonder how long that will take. Tsunoda mentioned that he didn’t get the Red Bull call-up from Marko and hasn’t spoken to him yet.. so who knows. (Marko exit = exit Max?)
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd April 2025, 14:57
Marko is still mad that his racism kept him from making the right call in the first place.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd April 2025, 18:30
pretty sure Liam was Horner’s call.
anon
3rd April 2025, 22:52
@pcxmac Marko has been very public with his criticisms of Tsunoda over the years, and in a recent interview he was still having a bit of a go at Tsunoda for “making silly mistakes” and “not performing consistently”, whilst offering praise for Lawson by saying “he came and delivered immediately, no matter how much pressure there was”. Marko also now seems to be trying to paint other parts of Red Bull as having also having had a negative attitude towards Tsunoda, having claimed that Newey was hostile towards Tsunoda and thought he shouldn’t be promoted to Red Bull because he also thought Tsunoda was too erratic.
Some have also noted that Tsunoda has made a recent comment about the lack of communications from Marko. He’s commented that, in the past, Marko called him when he was promoted through the junior ranks, having done so from Formula 3 all the way up to his debut in Formula 1, but that Marko has “very unusually” not spoken to him since the team announced that he was being promoted to replace Lawson.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd April 2025, 18:09
The best thing that can happen to RBR is they and Ferrari undo what Mercedes started in 2014.
Because the only reason why RBR won the last few years was the guys in control of F1 wanted to do a narrative pivot away from Lewis, most likely due to market/demographics issues. You can see they are trying to go after much a younger crowd. Especially with the dross like drive to survive.
Investors know how to make money off of stupid people. But they don’t really appreciate quality.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2025, 22:21
Indeed.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd April 2025, 13:07
I’m surprised about tsunoda’s comment that verstappen wouldn’t say the truth about the car if he asked him, I don’t get the point of it.
For the rest I’m liking tsunoda’s comments, makes me think he might get better results than his predecessors.
Erik
3rd April 2025, 13:36
yeah pretty weird and unnecessary comment. If you listen to all his former collagues, they all say the same: it is very easy to talk to Verstappen and he always gives you an honest answer about the car, tracks or racing in general.
I for one, do not like the comments, he also said he would go for the podium, ohno Yuki don’t say that before your first race! To me it all gives me the idea that Tsunoda is still mentally a bit immature. I am not getting my hopes up about Yuki this weekend, if I should give you my expectations: Tsunoda is going to put it in the wall…he sounds overly confident, sounds like he is overcompensating to me.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd April 2025, 17:37
Nah, aiming for a podium with this red bull is unrealistic, that’s what verstappen can do, not a team mate that shouldn’t be comparable performance wise, but I don’t see that in the article, I saw he said he was gonna try to be close to verstappen and knows it won’t be easy.
baasbas
3rd April 2025, 13:39
@esploratore1
Did something happen between Tsunoda and Verstappen? They did share setup info with Lawson, I can only assume they would want Tsunoda to be as far forward as possible so the should also share with him then.. I mean, if the situation is more like Lando and Piastri, sure if you find a setup advantage over the other half of the garage but they’re still competitive.. then you wouldn’t want to share
Edvaldo
3rd April 2025, 17:20
Max was against the switch, so he’s probably saying he doesn’t expect Max to help him in any way, so doesn’t perform and Lawson can get back into the car next season or something like that. He’s not expecting any favors.
Tsunoda has already been done dirty by Red Bull by not getting the seat from round 1. He doesn’t have many reasons to be polite or subtle. He’s there because they have run out of options, and he knows it.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
3rd April 2025, 18:13
Tsunoda is on his way out, and he doesn’t or won’t handle being turned in to a mule car lightly.
Verstappen is probably the most spoiled driver in F1 since Schumacher. And the guys in charge of F1 need a guy who drives a piece of crap car, who can achieve god like feats, for fans to idolize.
Yuki, is like, yeah, i just want a chance to win. So he would say that, hope he beats Max, and RBR go down the gutter this year, and Max leaves RBR, its the best thing that could happen to Christian Horner and the Bulls that are red.
Applebook
3rd April 2025, 19:12
Probably lost in translation. I wouldn’t read too much into this.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
4th April 2025, 5:52
He was speaking English.
Franky
3rd April 2025, 14:54
Finally some clarity however it does not reflects the whole picture, let’s see how he can handle the red bull policy of Max #1
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
3rd April 2025, 16:43
F1 dropped fastest lap point due to the Red Bulls teams shenanigans last season. We may see junior team sold off after this season as the 3 lesser drivers try to score points with the senior team.
sam
3rd April 2025, 16:52
Least likeable team and group of drivers I have ever witnessed.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
3rd April 2025, 19:18
This is hilarious – nothing has changed. Yuki was already supporting Max at Racing Bulls and Max has always been the priority:-)
What’s the point of Helmut even saying that? We all know Red Bull has 4 cars on track.
My only guess is that it’s a requirement on Max’s contract that all other drivers be made aware of their #2 status upon joining Red Bull.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2025, 22:25
Yeah, Tsunoda even highlighted how he would be doing his best to keep Max’ rivals behind in races from the go. So really nothing changed (not at Red Bull, nor for Tsunoda).
I think it’s because Marko remembers some of the incidents between Tsunoda and his teammates, and just made clear that if he ever touches Max’ car, he’ll be out immediately.
cdavman (@cdavman)
3rd April 2025, 19:23
The thing missing here is Max actually said he won’t give advice to Yuki, and that he’ll have to figure it out himself. It’s not just Yuki thinking this…
Given that, and the fact Max was unhappy with the switch, I’m starting to get the feeling he’s actually somewhat nervous of Yuki being his teammate.
Intriguing to see, if Yuki gets remotely close to him, we may start to see a rattled Max…
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd April 2025, 22:27
I just think it’s Max saying something like “hey, look, I can do things with this finnicky car that nobody else can, so my advise wouldn’t really help you even if I was able to express it clearly”, so Tsunoda will do better using his experience, and observation to figure the best way to deal with the car for himself.