Yuki Tsunoda arrived in 2025 with a fresh shot at the front of the grid. The move from Racing Bulls to Red Bull promised speed, podium chances, and a brand new ceiling.
What followed has been a heavy run of empty Sundays. No comfort. No spin. Just truth. A good driver in a car that demands excellence every lap.
The results tell a hard story
Across the early summer, Tsunoda slid into a long drought. He last scored at Imola in May and then went seven races without a point.
Belgium hurt the most. A pit call mix up cost him a chance to turn a top ten start into a finish that mattered. Red Bull staff admitted the miscue.
The driver called it a miscommunication. You could feel the air go out of the weekend.
The number line is cold. Ten points for the year and a place outside the top fifteen, while his team mate sits on the sharp end of the table.
In a season where McLaren sets the pace and the midfield bites, that gap looks worse week by week. It is not about a single mistake. It is about no points again and again. That is what sticks to a driver.
There was context. For weeks he ran older spec parts and trailed the main upgrade path. At Spa the team finally closed the spec gap and his one lap pace looked cleaner.
Still the score stayed at zero on Sunday. That is the split between talk and table. The car may now be aligned. The results are not.
The stakes across the rest of 2025
The paddock does not wait. Inside the Red Bull world, young names are pressing. Isack Hadjar stuck his Racing Bulls on the second row at Zandvoort and looked brave doing it.
Liam Lawson has turned solid laps for the sister team. When the junior car shines under orange smoke and sea breeze, the glare on the senior seat turns bright.
What must change now is simple and hard. Q3 must be standard. First lap survival must be non negotiable. When the car is a handful, bank P9. When it is better than that, lean into the overcut and make it P7.
Cut the errors. Snap the streak. Then stack a run of points at Monza, Baku, Singapore, and the Americas. That is how trust is rebuilt in this team. Not with quotes. With numbers.
Zandvoort sets the tone for the run home. The field is tight. The margins are tiny. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are in their own fight out front.
Max Verstappen is chasing fixes at home. In that noise, Tsunoda just needs clean laps and execution. If he leaves the Netherlands with a result the mood shifts.
If he leaves with nothing again, the talk about next year gets loud.
