Tsunoda: 'Only thinking about maximizing the performance'

Written by Kavi Khandelwal

As Formula One heads into the final four races of the season, Yuki Tsunoda is a driver facing intense pressure from all sides. Not only did he have to adapt to a mid-season move to the senior Red Bull team, but now his entire future in the sport hangs in the balance.

Credit: Formula one

With reports solidifying that Isack Hadjar has a confirmed 2026 contract with the Red Bull family and rumours linking F2 protégé Arvid Lindblad to a Racing Bulls seat, the competition has reached a critical point.

It is widely believed that Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are now in a direct fight for a single remaining seat at the teams for 2026.

Despite this precarious situation, Tsunoda projected a calm and focused attitude ahead of the weekend in Brazil. When asked about the "double challenge" of securing his future while also trying to aid Max Verstappen's championship, he was clear on his singular approach.

Tsunoda said: "Not really, I mean, I'm just trying to, only thinking about maximizing the performance and I think that will come naturally in both ways, you know, like if I'm able to maximize performance, naturally I'll be in a higher, you know, grid, starting grid and the qualifying course to Max and that will naturally be able to help Max in strategy in the race. Also you can say that also in my career as well.

"What I have to focus in my performance, extracting in every sessions and help the team as well to give some good feedback, to make some good progress for the setup throughout the weekend. So yeah, only focusing that."

This focus comes after a frustrating previous outing in Mexico, where Tsunoda felt he "threw points away". However, he is channeling that into motivation for Brazil, a track where he qualified third last year.

"In the previous race in Mexico, yeah, definitely I would have been in points if everything went smooth, but it's part of the motorsports and the racing and it kind of happened," he explained. "I'm just happy how the race week went through. So I'm just trying to keep this trend even more in this race, especially spring qualifying races.

"Yeah, I try my best to score points both races and yeah, like you said, I had a good memory last year... pretty good confidence."

Tsunoda also acknowledged the difficulty of his mid-season promotion, calling it a "natural challenge" to "jump into the complete new car".

He added that driving alongside a world champion brings its own pressures but also its own rewards: "Driving next to the world champion... is the best driver in the grid and, you know, all the pressure what I'm having is always a little bit different to what I used to have, but something that I enjoy right now and able to learn a lot of things from him. So yeah, it's good."

For Tsunoda, the path forward is simple: perform, and the rest will take care of itself.