Laurent Mekies and Helmut Marko agree about Yuki Tsunoda after latest poor performance at Brazilian Grand Prix

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Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in SQ1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday. It’s another step in the wrong direction for a driver fighting to stay on the F1 grid.

Tsunoda’s time of a 1:10.692 was an uncomfortable six-tenths shy of what he needed to reach SQ2. Max Verstappen complained about his Red Bull during the session and qualified lower than expected in sixth.

That does offer some mitigation for Tsunoda, but the team still expected more. He’s failed to reach Q2 in six Grand Prix qualifying sessions and suffered the same fate three times in the Sprint equivalent.

Isack Hadjar is expected to take Tsunoda’s Red Bull seat, which leaves former team Racing Bulls as his last hope.

Some believe Arvid Lindblad has already been chosen for one of the spots, so Tsunoda could be battling ex-teammate Liam Lawson.

Laurent Mekies says Yuki Tsunoda can’t ‘hide’ from SQ1 exit at Brazilian Grand Prix

Reacting to Tsunoda’s performance, Laurent Mekies and Helmut Marko agreed that ‘missing track time’ cost the 25-year-old after he touched the wall early in FP1.

However, they also concurred that there was nowhere to ‘hide’ from the ‘fact’ of his lack of speed. Tsunoda has given the team flashes of encouragement since the summer break, but hasn’t managed consecutive points finishes since Miami and Imola in May.

“We paid a little bit for the track time we lost this morning with the off,” Mekies told Sky Sports from the pit wall. “We paid a bit of performance there.

“There’s no point to hide. I don’t think we had a very good Q1 session. Unfortunately, you lose a bit of confidence with the lack of track running, you don’t get a clean session. Disappointing, but the weekend is still long for Yuki.”

Marko told the same broadcaster after the session: “Of course, he was missing track time and the times are very close, but we expected him to be at least in Q2. It didn’t happen, so that’s a fact.”

Lawson was 17th, a few hundredths faster than Tsunoda, while Hadjar made it to SQ3 and will line up ninth.

Red Bull change their deadline for 2026 driver decision – again

Red Bull initially said they would have made a decision about the driver roster for 2026 by now.

Then the narrative shifted, with Red Bull moving their driver line-up deadline to the end of the month. There’s a fortnight break after the Brazilian Grand Prix before the final triple header.

Now, Racing Bulls boss Alan Permane has told Band that they could wait until after the season has concluded.

“We just want some stability,” said Permane. “And this could very well go on until the end of the season. You might not find out until Monday morning after Abu Dhabi.”

Hadjar wants to test for Red Bull in the official post-season session at Yas Marina, but he may be disappointed. It’s possible that the Frenchman’s promotion is all but assured, but the auditions for the sister team have been extended.