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Japanese F1 sensation Yuki Tsunoda had his strongest result of the season in the RB21 at the 2025 Azerbaijan GP. Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies came out and reflected on Tsunoda's performance in Baku, while hailing the work ethic of the Japanese driver.
Yuki Tsunoda had a difficult start to his tenure at Red Bull after replacing Liam Lawson just a couple of races into the season. The Japanese driver had a few P9 and P10 finishes in the first five races for Red Bull before hitting a seven-race pointless streak.
However, ever since the summer break, Tsunoda has shown improvement and ended the pointless streak at the Dutch GP by finishing P9. The Japanese driver made contact with Liam Lawson at the Italian GP and sustained damage to the car, losing pace as well as time, and finished outside the points.
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The Azerbaijan GP was a clean weekend for Yuki Tsunoda, who managed to qualify P6 and defended against Lando Norris throughout the race. While the Japanese driver didn't have the outright pace to overtake Liam Lawson, he was able to keep the McLaren at bay and finished P6.
Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies came out after the race and hailed Tsunoda's performance at Baku, as well as his work ethic. He said,
“This was truly his best race, I think. He was strong in yesterday's qualifying, and he was very strong in the race as well. There was a group of drivers behind him, but he stayed ahead with his skill. Even Lando was behind him, and Yuki handled that pressure." (Via Shiga Sports)
“He works extremely hard and never backs down. Even when others might take a vacation, Yuki heads straight to the simulator with the engineers. Every weekend he’s not racing, he’s working somewhere. I’m really proud of him. He deserves it,” he added
Tsunoda's teammate, Max Verstappen, took the pole position, dominated the race, and comfortably took the victory.
Yuki Tsunoda on why he didn't make a “hero” move on Liam Lawson
After the only pitstop, Yuki Tsunoda came out just ahead of Liam Lawson. However, the Kiwi on the already up to temperature tires passed the Japanese driver in a matter of corners. For the remainder of the race, Tsunoda was stuck behind Lawson. However, at times it seemed that the Red Bull driver got close to an overtake, but didn't fully commit. Explaining the reason behind the resistance to making an all-out move, Tsunoda said,
“I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to overtake, and so some hero thing, some hero stuff in overtaking, but yeah, [I told myself to] slow down. I couldn't do some aggressive manoeuvre and lose position to Lando, it matters for Red Bull as a team being ahead of McLaren. The most important thing is to be ahead of McLaren, and both cars were in front.”
While Isack Hadjar has been poised as Tsunoda's replacement for the 2026 season, performances like Baku might make Red Bull reconsider their decision.
