Tsunoda's 2025 season: Verstappen's teammate's key moments highlighted

After the 2025 season, car number 21 will no longer be seen on a Red Bull car, GPblog has learned. The future for Yuki Tsunoda remains uncertain. For Yuki Tsunoda, the 2025 season started promisingly. He showed strong speed, evidenced by his fifth qualifying position for the Australian Grand Prix. However, due to a lack of luck among other factors, he was unable to convert this speed into points for Racing Bulls.

His former teammate at VCARB (now Racing Bulls), Liam Lawson, struggled with the challenging RB21. Red Bull therefore decided to prematurely (after just two races) end his journey. After the post-season tests of 2024, in which Tsunoda left a confident impression in the RB20, the car driven by Sergio Perez during the season next to Max Verstappen, it was Tsunoda's turn beside the Dutchman during the Japanese Grand Prix.

During his first race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen convincingly qualified on pole position, ahead of both McLarens. Tsunoda, on the other hand, was stranded in Q2 and had to settle for fourteenth place. Nevertheless, the Japanese driver remained confident and believed that there was more potential in the car. Ironically, his teammate won the race the following day.

In Bahrain, Tsunoda achieved his first points finish with a ninth place, giving the impression that he might be able to turn the tide, especially considering Verstappen's challenging weekend, who still finished well ahead of Tsunoda. In Saudi Arabia, things didn't go well for the Japanese driver either. During FP2 he crashed, after which Helmut Marko said it could happen, but during the race, he collided with Pierre Gasly, ending his race prematurely. For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Red Bull planned an extra test, so Tsunoda could become more acquainted with the car.

At the Miami Grand Prix, the last race before Red Bull's update package was launched, Tsunoda couldn't do what Verstappen did: drive on the limit. After the race, Tsunoda also said that there was still room for improvement. With the new updates on the car, things still didn't go well for Tsunoda in Italy. During qualifying, he crashed hard into the tire barrier. Jacques Villeneuve said during the weekend that the Japanese should fear for his seat at Red Bull. However, he still managed to score a point in Italy, finishing tenth.

In Monaco, Tsunoda fell through again. Verstappen finished in fourth place, but Tsunoda was nowhere near the Dutchman. In Spain,the following weekend, was also marrred with disappointment. He qualified last and had to start from the pit lane on Sunday and couldn't drive into the points.

During the race weekend in Canada, Tsunoda received a heavy penalty from the stewards, as he overtook under a red flag during FP3. This resulted in a grid penalty. Also that weekend, the Red Bull driver didn't finish in the points, but had to settle instead for twelfth place.

Then the two most recent races of the season. At the Red Bull Ring in Austria, it was drama again for Tsunoda, as he didn't make it out of Q1. Not only in qualifying, but also in the race everything went awry.

Tsunoda was involved in an incident with Franco Colapinto and received a ten-second time penalty. Also during the British Grand Prix, Tsunoda failed to score points.

According to the driver himself, it's partly because he's lagging behind on updates compared to Verstappen. In Belgium, Tsunoda will also receive upgrades. Then it's his turn to show what he can do.