Yuki Tsunoda agrees with Zak Brown that Red Bull would be behind Racing Bulls in the teams’ standings if it were to lose Max Verstappen.
And that’s a prospect the team is currently facing as the four-time World Champion is being heavily linked to Mercedes.
Zak Brown: ‘Red Bull would be behind Racing Bulls’
Although Verstappen hasn’t said much about his thoughts over his F1 2026 plans, as “the more I say about it, the more it will be reported in the media”, Nelson Piquet Jr., the brother of Verstappen’s partner, Kelly, may have let the cat out of the bag.
The former F1 driver dropped the line “next year, with Max there,” in the Pelas Pista podcast as he spoke about Mercedes before slightly backtracking as he said Verstappen and Mercedes are still “missing final contract details.”
But as he continued to backpedal, he added: “Until August, he needs to have made a decision. They will either get the final details right or not.”
Losing Verstappen would be a huge blow to Red Bull.
“Red Bull would be behind Racing Bulls,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown declared to Sky F1. “I think Max is carrying them at the moment.”
This season, Verstappen has 165 of Red Bull’s 172 points as the team sits fourth in the Drivers’ standings. Without him, they’d be stone last, behind Alpine’s 19 points.
Red Bull Racing: F1 2025 head-to-head stats
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
Such is his prowess in the Red Bull, in the seven years since Daniel Ricciardo left the team, he’s bagged 60 Grand Prix wins while his five team-mates have a combined total of five. As for World titles, that’s four against zero.
But rather than be insulted by Brown’s claim, Verstappen’s current team-mate Tsunoda wholeheartedly agrees with the McLaren CEO.
Tsunoda started the F1 2025 campaign as a Racing Bulls driver and scored three points in two races, and did so despite issues at both the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix weekends.
Since joining Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix, he’s scored seven points in 10 Grand Prix weekends.
“Well, it’s the truth that probably we’d be behind,” Tsunoda said of Brown’s comment. “I mean, the performances at this point, probably we’ll be behind.
“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.”
But not everyone agrees with Tsunoda and Brown.
Liam Lawson started the season as Verstappen’s team-mate but wasn’t able to score a point in his two races. More worryingly, qualifying 20th for China’s Sprint and Grand Prix, Red Bull noted that he was floundering and felt it would be best to send him back to Racing Bulls and promote Tsunoda in his stead.
The New Zealander reckons Brown is missing the point in the bigger Red Bull issues.
“I don’t think Zak Brown understands,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.
“It’s easy to comment on stuff when you are not involved and you’re outside of the picture. So, I don’t think he understands.
Lawson has scored 12 points since Racing Bulls return and sits ahead of Tsunoda in the Drivers’ standings.
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