Tsunoda's Singapore nightmare deepens F1 future concerns at Red Bull

Yuki Tsunoda arrived at Singapore knowing his Formula 1 future hung in the balance. Red Bull was preparing to make its 2026 driver decision, and the 25-year-old Japanese driver needed to prove he belonged in the team's plans. Instead, the weekend unfolded as a masterclass in how quickly momentum can evaporate.

On Saturday, something went wrong in qualifying. Friday practice had looked reasonable enough, but when the cars returned to the track for the crucial session, Tsunoda couldn't find the grip he needed. He was eliminated in Q2, starting Sunday's race from 13th on the grid. Team principal Laurent Mekies acknowledged the puzzle afterward: the work on Friday had been solid, but Saturday had derailed everything. The team would need to sit down with Tsunoda and understand what had shifted between those two days.

Then came the first lap—the part Tsunoda himself called the worst of his racing life. Starting 13th on soft tyres, he found himself hemmed in at every corner, blocked and covered by other cars with nowhere to go. The chaos cost him dearly. By the time the opening lap ended, he had plummeted to 17th place, buried in the pack with a mountain to climb. When asked about it afterward, his frustration was raw: he couldn't believe what had happened, couldn't see what else he could have done differently. Every move he tried was cut off.

What followed was a recovery drive that, under other circumstances, might have looked respectable. From 18th on the grid, Tsunoda clawed his way back to 12th place by the finish. His long-run pace, he insisted, had actually been among the best of his Red Bull career—competitive with the front-runners when given clean air and time to settle into a rhythm. But none of that mattered much in the final standings. He missed the points entirely, beaten even by Carlos Sainz at Williams, who had started from 18th.

The contrast with his team-mate was stark and uncomfortable. Max Verstappen had won two of the last three races and finished second in Singapore, exactly where a world champion should be. Tsunoda sat 17th in the championship, level on points with Pierre Gasly at the struggling Alpine team. The gap between them was not a matter of tenths of a second—it was a chasm.

Tsunoda's predicament was not lost on him or on Red Bull. The organization had other options waiting. Isack Hadjar, his former Racing Bulls team-mate, was being tipped to replace him in 2026. Junior driver Arvid Lindblad was also in the wings. The window to prove himself was closing, and Singapore had not helped his case.

Yet Tsunoda clung to a thread of optimism. His long-run pace, he believed, showed he was finally turning a corner. Two races earlier, he had been almost hopeless—P18, P19, no matter what he tried. Now he had genuine speed. The missing piece was qualifying pace, the ability to extract a single fast lap from the car when it mattered most. If he could stitch those two things together—one-lap speed and race-day consistency—he thought everything might click. The Americas races were coming up. That was where he needed to prove it.

Mekies offered a measured assessment: Saturday had been poor, the first lap shocking, but the recovery from 18th to 12th showed decent pace. The team would work with him to improve. But the subtext was clear. Red Bull had a championship to defend and a 2026 lineup to finalize. Tsunoda's window was open, but it was not infinite.