Red Bull says domo arigato to Tsunoda: these stats explain why it makes sense

Between 2016 and 2018, Red Bull Racing arguably had the most competitive driver partnership in Formula 1 with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. The two pushed each other to great heights and thus propelled the team forward. Since Ricciardo's departure, however, Red Bull has never been able to find a strong driver to pair with Verstappen.

From their own training program, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon were unsuccessful, after which Red Bull looked outside its own talent pool and brought in Sergio Perez. In the first two seasons, Perez was close-ish to Verstappen, but then the Mexican fell far behind. Especially in 2024, the gap to Verstappen became painfully visible as the competition also got closer. Verstappen became the world champion, while Perez scored hardly any points.

In 2025, Red Bull initially chose Lawson, but after two disastrously bad weekends, the New Zealander was quickly relieved of his duties. Since then, Yuki Tsunoda has been driving alongside Max Verstappen. Tsunoda is performing better than Lawson, but that's about all that can be said.

Of the entire F1 grid, Tsunoda is the driver with the biggest difference compared to his teammate. Tsunoda has not finished a race or qualifying ahead of Verstappen, scored only ten points, and is on average the farthest away from his teammate in qualifying.

Especially in 2025, this is extra painful, with many rookies on the Formula 1 grid. Andrea Kimi Antonelli is much closer to George Russell and even qualified ahead of the Brit once. Oliver Bearman is very close to Esteban Ocon in qualifying, and so does Gabriel Bortoleto with Nico Hulkenberg.

Even Jack Doohan, who was sidelined at Alpine, was closer to Pierre Gasly than Yuki Tsunoda to Max Verstappen. Franco Colapinto, who is currently under heavy pressure at Alpine, is closer to his teammate than Tsunoda is.

The gap between Tsunoda and Verstappen averages 0.599s after the first twelve Grands Prix. With a grid that's getting closer together as F1 enters the last year of the current regulations, such a large difference costs a lot of positions. It's not surprising, then, that Tsunoda made it into the final part of qualifying only three out of ten times.

For a top team, such differences are unacceptable. Even if a team opts for a duo with one clear frontman and a second man, you want the second man to be within two to three tenths. Otherwise, the difference is too large to work together on the setup and car improvement, to strategically help each other in the race, and to still score good points if the frontman drops out.

Although Yuki Tsunoda may not have been given a fair chance by Red Bull, it's hard to deny that Red Bull Racing needs a different teammate for Max Verstappen. If you want to know who that new teammate should be, read here.