Jacques Villeneuve doesn’t understand Red Bull’s stance on Yuki Tsunoda ahead of 2026 contract decision

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Yuki Tsunoda will discover in the next few weeks whether he’ll still be a Formula 1 driver in 2026.

After four full seasons with Red Bull’s junior team, Yuki Tsunoda was finally handed a promotion this year.

However, the situation didn’t appear to favour either the team or the driver, with Tsunoda thrown in at his home race after Liam Lawson’s underwhelming first two outings for Red Bull.

It meant the 25-year-old had no pre-season and no time to adapt to a car that had proven to be notoriously difficult to drive by Lawson and his predecessor, Sergio Perez.

Tsunoda finished 12th on his debut before scoring his first points as a Red Bull driver in Bahrain at the following race.

However, the negatives have far outweighed the positives for the Japanese driver this season, and he currently sits 17th in the drivers’ championship with four races to go.

Red Bull have delayed deciding on their driver line-ups for 2026, although it’s widely believed that Isack Hadjar will be promoted next season.

Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has had his say on Tsunoda’s situation and admits he doesn’t understand why Red Bull are ‘overprotecting’ him at this stage.

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Jacques Villeneuve thinks Red Bull are ‘overprotecting’ Yuki Tsunoda

Villeneuve was speaking about Tsunoda’s situation on The F1 Show Podcast and explained: “I don’t understand how a team can say, “Oh, he’s had a good weekend.’

“Better than maybe other weekends he’s had, but is it a good weekend? He’s still very far off his teammate.

“He’s not bringing anything to the table either in pace, points for the team, or helping Max for the championship.

“And he has a lot of experience. We’ve seen the best of him. He’s already on the way down.

“So, it seems that they’re overprotecting him for some reason. But no, you can’t say that was a good weekend.

“It was maybe his least bad, but it wasn’t a good weekend.”

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How Yuki Tsunoda’s 2025 Red Bull season compares to Sergio Perez’s final year with the team

Tsunoda could still race for Racing Bulls next year, with his chances of staying at Red Bull seemingly evaporating.

Team principal Laurent Mekies disagrees with Helmut Marko over Tsunoda, with the Austrian veteran keen to promote Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad from Formula 2.

Some parallels can be drawn between Tsunoda and the last driver who spent a full season alongside Verstappen, Sergio Perez.

A lot was made of Perez finishing the 2024 season 285 points behind Verstappen last season, but unless Tsunoda manages to outscore the four-time world champion over the final four races, then he’ll finish the campaign in an even bigger deficit.

The gap currently stands at 293 points, and even if Tsunoda somehow finds himself ahead of Verstappen at any point this season, he’ll almost certainly be asked to give that position up with the drivers’ championship in mind.

If he can support Verstappen’s championship bid between now and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull might just stick with Tsunoda. Otherwise, he’s in a head-to-head battle with Lawson for the final seat at Racing Bulls.