Tsunoda reveals what he needs to perform better at Red Bull

On the back of four pointless races in the last four rounds, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda claimed that he needs more time to get used to his new F1 car, the RB21.

Yuki Tsunoda extended his contract with Racing Bulls for his 2025 campaign, partnering FIA Formula 2 runner-up Isack Hadjar. However, after his early-season performances at the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix—including sixth at the latter sprint—Red Bull opened discussions to promote Tsunoda as a replacement for Liam Lawson at the parent team.

He had qualified fifth and ninth, respectively, before being denied points finishes due to strategic errors at both, as well as spontaneous front wing damage in China.

Red Bull then elected to replace Lawson with Tsunoda in a swap deal from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards, partnering defending four-time World Drivers' Champion Max Verstappen for the remainder of the 2025 season. However, the Japanese driver has had a very disappointing period of time since he joined the Milton Keynes outfit.

Speaking of what he needs to raise his performance, Tsunoda stated: "Well, it’s the truth that probably we’d be behind. I don’t know. I mean, the performances at this point I’m getting, probably we’ll be behind.

"But at the same time, I was not in the off-season tests there, so I don’t know. But VCARB so far, yeah, definitely performing well. I’ve shown good performance first two races.

"Probably if everything goes well with Australia, China was a bit hectic, and if the strategy, everything goes well, I was probably scoring a lot of points. So it’s good that they’re performing. But at the same time now, I’m fully focused on Red Bull, and it’s a car that definitely you can make it work

" I just need, I guess, my opinion, just need more time, build the understanding, work hard to understand, work hard with the engineer as well. I just have to get his point more.