Tsunoda appears to have squandered his last chance at a Red Bull seat with Marko

Yuki Tsunoda seems to have squandered his last chance at a seat with Red Bull. After an excellent sprint qualifying and sprint race, Helmut Marko was anything but pleased with the Japanese driver following qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Tsunoda actually started his weekend very well. In Friday’s sprint qualifying, the Japanese driver was, for the first time in a session, faster than his teammate Max Verstappen. In the sprint race, Tsunoda then did an excellent job by finishing fifth and not holding up Verstappen any longer than necessary.

You’d think that would be a perfect springboard for the rest of the weekend, but nothing could be further from the truth. After Q1, Tsunoda was once again, not for the first time this year, already speaking to the press. Looking fairly dejected, he simply concluded that he had no idea where it had gone wrong this time.

Tsunoda has no clue what went wrong

“Yeah, I have no idea what happened. The lap was clean, comparable to what I did yesterday with P5. The car was pretty much the same. We adjusted one thing, but that can’t have such a big impact. No idea. Suddenly lost all grip and pace,” Tsunoda said immediately after the session.

According to Tsunoda, he did not make any mistakes on his fastest lap, which resulted in P16, and he insisted he was really on the limit. “If you look at my lap, you can see that as well.”

While Tsunoda had no clue where it had gone wrong yet again, Red Bull Racing’s advisor did. Afterwards, GPblog spoke with Marko, who was clearly not impressed with Yuki. Asked what went wrong, he said: “Nothing. He just couldn’t repeat his performance (from sprint qualifying).”

Yuki Tsunoda has no idea where it went wrong in Qatar - Photo: RacePictures

And that harsh conclusion is, of course, painful for Tsunoda. On a weekend when he might have had a last chance to convince Red Bull’s management that he is the man for Racing Bulls, he still failed to perform consistently across the entire weekend. He can produce one peak, but then it goes wrong again for the all-important qualifying.

After the Qatar Grand Prix, Red Bull will make a decision regarding the driver lineup for 2026. Isack Hadjar seems assured of a seat alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, while Arvid Lindblad will very likely make his debut with Racing Bulls in F1 in 2026. This leaves a spot for either Liam Lawson or Tsunoda.

It’s to Tsunoda’s slight relief that Lawson isn’t leaving an indelible impression either. While Hadjar qualified sixth, Lawson got no further than P12 after failing to make it through the first qualifying segment in sprint qualifying.

Where Lawson and Tsunoda were still the options last year for the Red Bull Racing seat alongside Verstappen, they are now the choices for the Racing Bulls seat, and neither is in the best form of his life. It is anything but a luxury problem for Red Bull.

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