Max Verstappen has offered insight into why team-mate Yuki Tsunoda failed to make an impact during their single season together at Red Bull Racing, suggesting the Japanese driver might have found more performance with a different engineering approach. The four-time world champion’s assessment comes as Tsunoda prepares to step back into a reserve role for 2026, making way for rookie Isack Hadjar in the second RB seat. While Verstappen secured eight victories and mounted a remarkable late-season comeback to finish runner-up to Lando Norris by just two points, Tsunoda endured a difficult campaign that yielded no podium finishes and left him languishing in seventeenth place overall.
Setup philosophy divergence between team-mates
The performance gulf between the two Red Bull drivers throughout 2025 proved stark and ultimately decisive. Verstappen collected fifteen podium finishes across the season, with his late surge widely regarded as some of the finest driving of his career. Tsunoda, by contrast, managed only a sixth place in Azerbaijan and seventh in Austin as his best results, failing to provide the kind of support that Sergio Pérez had previously offered the team leader.
Speaking on Viaplay’s Gemaximaliseerd programme, Verstappen addressed whether Red Bull’s second drivers typically adopt his car setup. “They try, but ultimately every driver has their own style,” the Dutchman explained. While acknowledging that Tsunoda “often ran with a bit more understeer in terms of setup,” Verstappen noted convergence as the season progressed. “At a certain point you do go somewhat in the same direction. Especially in the second half of the season we often drove with the same philosophy, but Yuki’s car then had slightly more understeer.”
The crucial role of engineering partnerships
Despite full access to each other’s telemetry data, Verstappen admitted he learned “little” from studying Tsunoda’s information, given his position as the faster driver. However, he emphasised that raw data represents only part of the equation in modern Formula 1 performance. “It differs depending on how you build up the weekend and how you work with your engineer,” Verstappen said. “It really comes down to the details.”
The Red Bull star illustrated this point with a specific example from the season finale. “In Abu Dhabi, I also wasn’t completely satisfied from FP1 to FP3, and ultimately with very small changes we were still able to find two tenths,” he explained. “Those two tenths is enormous when you look at the grid.”
Experience and communication as performance differentiators
When asked directly whether Tsunoda might have performed better with a different garage assignment and engineering team, Verstappen provided a nuanced response. “I work very well together [with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase], and as I said, it comes down to the details. It also comes down to a personal connection,” he said. “And then together you find one or two tenths like that. Through building up experience and listening to feedback from the other side, then [Tsunoda] would have found something. But that mainly has to do with experience, not because someone isn’t good or anything.”
The assessment offers rare insight into how driver-engineer partnerships can shape performance margins in contemporary Formula 1, where tenth-of-a-second differences separate competitive running from midfield anonymity. Verstappen’s emphasis on the gradual accumulation of understanding between driver and engineer through shared experience suggests Tsunoda may have needed more time to develop such rapport, though Red Bull’s decision to move him aside indicates the team felt progress was insufficient.
What this means for Red Bull’s 2026 line-up
Tsunoda’s demotion to reserve driver status for 2026 clears the path for Isack Hadjar to make his Formula 1 debut alongside Verstappen. The incoming rookie faces the daunting challenge of supporting a four-time world champion known for his exacting standards and relentless pace. Verstappen’s comments about the importance of the engineering relationship may offer some comfort to Hadjar, suggesting that performance deficits need not solely reflect driver ability but can emerge from mismatches in working methodology.
For Red Bull, the decision to replace Tsunoda rather than persevere reflects the team’s determination to maximise constructor’s championship points after falling short in recent seasons. With Liam Lawson now partnering Verstappen at the senior team, the pressure on all Red Bull-affiliated drivers to deliver immediate results has never been greater. Verstappen’s willingness to acknowledge the complex factors behind team-mate performance gaps demonstrates his maturity, even as his own standards remain uncompromising.
