Max Verstappen rumours aside, Red Bull are also facing a difficult decision with their second driver as Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles continue.
But Helmut Marko insists he will see out the F1 2025 season, after all, the team has “no alternative”.
Serious questions are being asked about Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull future
Having joined Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix when he replaced Liam Lawson, Tsunoda has scored just seven points in nine grands prix and is down in 17th place in the Drivers’ standings.
The driver arrived at the Silverstone circuit for the second of Red Bull’s back-to-back home races on the back of a wretched Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
Failing to make it out of Q1 where he was only 18th quickest, he had a collision-filled Grand Prix as he clattered into Lance Stroll as he tried to overtake him before later hitting Franco Colapinto.
Tsunoda was given a 10-second time penalty for the second incident and finished the Grand Prix two laps down on a Sunday in which he was the only Red Bull driver on track after Max Verstappen was punted into retirement by Kimi Antonelli at the start.
With McLaren claiming the 1-2 in a dominant performance, Red Bull fell 255 points behind the championship-leading team.
The Japanese driver’s form has serious questions over his future with the Austrian outfit.
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Marko, though, says he will see out the season with the team but that’s because they don’t have another option.
“The plan is for him to finish the season, nothing has changed,” the Red Bull motorsport advisor told Kleine Zeitung. “We also have no alternative.
“There have been talks with him, also with the engineering team. He was completely out of his depth in Spielberg.
“We want to stabilise him and no longer set up the car so hard towards Max. That could help him.”
However, Tsunoda’s British Grand Prix weekend didn’t get off to a flying start with the driver only 15th on Friday’s practice timesheet, just over six-tenths slower than Verstappen.
Tsunoda, though, was on the Austrian spec RB21, whereas Verstappen was running Red Bull’s upgraded floor.
Team principal Christian Horner was asked about Red Bull’s second driver situation when he spoke with the media during Friday’s FIA press conference and reiterated Marko’s statement that Tsunoda would stay with Red Bull for the remainder of the season.
As for F1 2026, Red Bull will give priority to their own stable of drivers but Horner hasn’t ruled out looking outside for Verstappen’s next team-mate.
“Obviously, our priority will be to look at what we have within our pool of talent,” he said. “Yuki has got until the end of the season to demonstrate that he’s the guy to remain in the car.
“We have Isack [Hadjar] also doing a good job and Liam finding his form as well. So, within the Red Bull pool, we have talent.
“But of course, you’re always open to what is outside of that. We want to field the best line-up that we can for next year.
“We’ve gone outside of that pool in recent years. If we feel the necessity to do so, we wouldn’t be afraid to do so again.”
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