Yuki Tsunoda didn’t wish to risk a move in F1 Azerbaijan GP in a better show, as Laurent Mekies notes behind the scenes work which includes skipping holiday.
Finally Tsunoda managed to show some performance in the Red Bull car in F1 Azerbaijan GP. The Japanese driver qualified sixth and started off by passing George Russell for fifth. He was immediately re-passed, but he showed right intent from the get go, after gaining some confidence in the car.
Since the race in Hungary, Tsunoda has worked out a solution which he tried in Zandvoort and Monza. It seemed to work, especially in improving his race performance. He felt confident on one lap pace, but he was struggling on the race side. Things showed for better in Baku, where he finished sixth.
He almost had fifth against Liam Lawson, but the warm tyres allowed the Kiwi to re-pass and hold him off. In fact, Tsunoda didn’t risk a move as he was being chased by Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. His primary target was to keep Norris behind.
Even though Max Verstappen has an outside chance with 69 points gap, Red Bull wants to give everything at it. “If I had been able to rejoin two metres faster, probably I would have been able to keep Liam behind,” reflected Tsunoda when speaking to media. “Probably last lap I was able to…but anyway, still overall I’m happy with.
“The team did a fantastic job with the strategy, and something I was able to improve into this race weekend was massive, also something internally supported by the team to make changes to the car, which affected a lot in this long run. It was good. It was not easy, very low deg from the hard but at the same time, the medium compound I had was the used tyre from qualifying, and it overheats quite quickly.
“Didn’t able to overtake, which is a shame, but at the same time, it was tricky. I can’t obviously do some aggressive maneuver and lose position to Lando or both cars, which will hurt a lot for Red Bull as a team, [letting] McLaren ahead. The most important thing is be ahead of McLaren, and the two cars were in front, which I think is the most important thing for the Red Bull family.
“So I think obviously I had a lot of emotions, that I want to overtake and do some hero stuff in overtaking but yeah, didn’t do it. It is not easy, there’s a lot of adrenaline, it tempts to dive on me on the inside which I brought couple of opportunities if I look back, maybe into Turn 1 that I had, but it is a street circuit which is very dirty on the inside.
“It is also easy to lose from the car behind especially when driving that close. I think I took what is good for me, finish in P6 but let Lando in front of me or finish P6 but Lando behind is a lot difference, I think I took the right decision,” summed up Tsunoda, who registered his best result with Red Bull. He still feels there is a gap to Verstappen, but the steps taken is in the right direction.
He unlocked something in Monza, which he could show in Baku and wants to continue with it in the remainder of the F1 season. “Definitely I unlocked something there [in Monza], which is why I proved in FP2 [in Baku], this long run as well,” said Tsunoda. “I just started kind of this approach and obviously the quality is not at a level that probably Max is doing now, but step by step and I think was not at least as far as I had in the previous race week.
“So definitely positive, and I think also it shows some improvement from myself that I put some efforts over the weeks, to put some extra simulator work, or whatever, and I think that that pays off a little bit. So I just keep doing what I’m doing,” summed up Tsunoda. Team boss Mekies backed the Japanese for his good show in Baku and revealed some behind the scenes snippet of his hard work.
The Frenchman noted about Tsunoda skipping vacation to practice on simulator to try and find a solution to improve his race pace. “Look, I think it’s his best race with us this year,” said Mekies. “I think he was strong in qualifying. He was very strong in the race. The clever guys will get the number right. But he was sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes four, rarely four tenths away from Max.
“And Max was pulling away from everyone with that pace. So it was very, very serious pace. We thought he would have to defend very hard against McLaren and Ferrari also to help with Max chasing the win. And he didn’t have to defend. He was actually there on merit. And Lando stayed behind him and didn’t put much pressure on him. So it’s his best, not only result, but also race pace with us.
“It was really the one thing that was probably the most important for us, to get that sort of clean sample, we said last time. And I think he was listening. And it’s good. So I’m very happy for him. He’s working very hard. He has never backed off working hard. I mean, we discussed here, after it was a tough time in Budapest, he came straight to the simulator.
“Instead of going on holiday, he said, no, no, I’ll go back to the simulator with the team and work the next day. And that’s the approach he has. Every weekend when he’s not racing, he’s working somewhere with his engineers or on his driving. And I’m very happy for him that it shows progress. Obviously, we’re not going to go into much details for obvious reasons [about what has changed].
“Everybody in Milton Keynes have been pushing hard, never giving up on that car. They tried to see why it was not performing as well as the numbers suggested. And that includes the drivers in the loop, as we call the simulator. And hence, the inputs from Max and Yuki are vital to get these steps. They are the best sensors in the car. And they certainly have contributed a lot to unlock the step performance we seem to find in these conditions,” summed up Mekies.
Here’s Yuki Tsunoda losing out to Liam Lawson: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-lawson-pounces-to-power-past-tsunoda-and-snatch-p5.1843886115301564155
Here’s start battle: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-verstappen-leads-on-the-race-start-as-piastri-drops-to-last.1843871645009390099
Here’s Liam Lawson on battle with Yuki Tsunoda
Here’s Lando Norris on being stuck
Here’s Max Verstappen on domination
