Desperate F1 driver told he’s becoming an ‘irrelevance’, his career could be over after Abu Dhabi

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Red Bull are set to axe at least one of their drivers at the end of the 2025 season. They control not only their own duo, but also the Racing Bulls pair.

16 of the 20 drivers who started the year are already confirmed for 2026. Jack Doohan is set to leave Alpine permanently after being dropped early on for Franco Colapinto, whose services will be retained.

Isack Hadjar is expected to join Red Bull after a magnificent rookie season, though the word is that there won’t be confirmation until December. With Arvid Lindblad lined up for Racing Bulls, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson could be fighting for the last remaining place in the set-up.

Tsunoda is 17th in the championship, eight points behind Lawson. On the surface, that makes the decision look clear-cut, but there are still those who believe Racing Bulls have a more stable car than Red Bull.

Gary Anderson says Red Bull are paying the price for Yuki Tsunoda’s struggles

Writing in his column for The Telegraph, former F1 designer Gary Anderson suggested that Tsunoda is becoming an ‘irrelevance’ at Red Bull. While he’s the number two to Max Verstappen, he can’t offer the team useful setup guidance.

That’s because the ‘desperate’ Japanese driver is more focused on saving his career. He’s either ‘overdriving’ the car or being ‘too tentative’ as he tries to avoid more damaging results.

Tsunoda started and finished 17th in Brazil, making it three starts without points. Red Bull didn’t correctly observe the 10-second penalty he picked up for a collision with Lance Stroll, forcing him to serve it again.

Anderson warned Red Bull that this problem won’t simply ‘disappear’, particularly with major regulation changes looming. Tsunoda could be out of F1 by next year.

“The problem with Tsunoda is that he is driving for his career and without confidence,” he said. “Every session the focus is not making the car better but trying to ensure he is not at the back of the field. He is now in a state of desperation trying to keep his seat and that never works.

“Half the time you are overdriving to find the lap time and making mistakes and the other half you are perhaps too tentative and too slow. Ultimately, a driver operating this way cannot feel the nuances in the car and offer productive suggestions to make it faster.

“Red Bull paid the price for this in Brazil and have done so perhaps at other points in the season too. Tsunoda is now almost an irrelevance to how they develop and set up the car.

“This problem is not going to disappear. Indeed, it will become more crucial in 2026 when the new regulations come in. The development path for the teams next year will be steep, especially in the first half of the season as they get to grips with the next generation of cars.

“They need as much feedback as they can get, but it needs to be useful.”

Aston Martin seemed like Yuki Tsunoda’s fallback option – not anymore

While Red Bull are nominally giving Tsunoda more time to save himself, their timeline effectively ruled him out of contention for a seat elsewhere. Vacancies at Alpine and Cadillac have closed.

Cadillac have signed Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, two drivers who dropped off the grid at the end of 2024. Ironically, former Red Bull driver Perez says Tsunoda boosted his reputation by struggling so much.

Perez and Bottas have both won several Grands Prix, and while Tsunoda built a reputation as a solid midfield driver, he doesn’t have that kind of pedigree. Thus, it may be harder for him to return if Abu Dhabi is his last race for Red Bull.

Aston Martin have made Jak Crawford their reserve driver, which potentially rules out one stop-gap solution for Tsunoda. His backers, Honda, will supply Aston’s engines from next year.