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Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
F1 News

Tsunoda ready to aid Verstappen: 'Can help in a lot of areas'

22:40, 23 Oct
Updated: 23:14, 23 Oct
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Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda believes he can "help out in a lot of areas" to give Max Verstappen every chance at winning the 2025 World Championship.

"I think that's kind of the role I understand. I'm not fighting for a championship; my teammate is."
- Yuki Tsunoda

The Dutchman has cit a 104 point gap down to just 40 points with five races remaining, brining himself back into the title fight and setting up one of the greatest comebacks in Formula 1 history.

For Tsunoda, there have been plenty of struggles since joining from Racing Bulls just two races into the 2025 season, but thanks to some top ten finishes in Baku and Austin, the Japapense driver has found some confidence, and he is ready to help his teammate earn a fifth-consecutive drivers' title.

"I think I can help in a lot of areas," Tsunoda explained at Thursday's press conference at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

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Max Verstappen celebrating with his team in Austin - Photo: RacePictures

"I have different set-ups, but we're still challenging to discover a lot of, I would say, new setups to maximise with the current package. That's what we are doing very good, I think, this year so far.

"Position-wise, being as high as possible will create more opportunities to play around with the strategy to help favour the team, depending on the situation, to help Max get into P1 or make our competitors' lives a lot more difficult.

"I think that's kind of the role I understand. I'm not fighting for a championship; my teammate is. But also to do that, obviously, you have to be consistently performing well as I did in Austin, especially in the race. That's what I have to do more of in the short run."

Tsunoda's future still foggy

Tsunoda has already had some close battles in recent races, with Haas driver Ollie Bearman taking aim at the Japanese driver after the two of them almost collided at the Circuit of The Americas.

The Japanese came through to take P7 and collect some valuable points in Austin, but the future still remains murky for 2026.

It comes after Helmut Marko admitted that, along with Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar also had a seat sealed for the 2026 season. But will that be with Racing Bulls, or will the Frenchman make the move to Red Bull and replace Tsunoda?

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