Laurent Mekies shares how he plans to use Yuki Tsunoda to help Max Verstappen win the 2025 F1 title

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Yuki Tsunoda is under immense pressure at Red Bull as teammate Max Verstappen fights for the 2025 Formula 1 championship.

The Dutchman has continued to put in world-class performances with Red Bull, despite having a difficult car to drive in the first half of 2025. The team’s regression in development and the fact that they ignored their star driver’s complaints ultimately led to the sacking of Christian Horner.

Since Laurent Mekies has taken the reins as team principal, Verstappen is reinvigorated at Red Bull. The four-time champion has won three of the last four races and has cut Oscar Piastri’s championship lead down to 40 points with five races to go.

Teammate Yuki Tsunoda has improved his form in recent races, achieving a best finish of sixth in Baku. He finished seventh at the United States Grand Prix, but not before getting knocked out in Q2 as he struggled for one-lap pace.

The Japanese driver is faced with the prospect of losing his Red Bull seat, having scored 25 points in 17 races with the team. Helmut Marko says Tsunoda’s future will be decided after Mexico, and the team have outlined their plan for the 25-year-old.

Laurent Mekies will continue to give Yuki Tsunoda different setups to help Max Verstappen win the 2025 title

With Verstappen being in position to win the title, and Red Bull fighting Ferrari and Mercedes for P2 in the constructors’ championship, Mekies wants Tsunoda to be ‘of service’ to his teammate. They will continue to use him to test different setups to try and find extra performance for the Dutchman.

Journalist Ronald Vording detailed Red Bull’s plans from the paddock at COTA via Motorsport.com Nederland: “Speaking of Tsunoda, well, a reasonably solid weekend, of course, but Mekies said about that, yes, but that deficit of something like 50 seconds or even more is still not good enough.

“So, that’s difficult. That said, they are trying to use it a bit in that title fight. For example, as they did on Friday, by giving him a test run with a different set-up to see if that might be something for Max. Well, they’re going to continue doing that in the coming weekends.

“So they hope that Yuki can be of service to Max. But of course, also with those points finish for the constructors’ championship. Because P2 is only 10 points away from Red Bull.

“I said to Marko: ‘You shouldn’t want that at all, because prize money will come your way and you’re better off finishing fourth in terms of wind tunnel time’. Then he started to laugh. He didn’t entirely agree with me.”

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Yuki Tsunoda faces a bleak reality with his Red Bull future

With Tsunoda’s future soon to be decided, he is running out of time to prove to Red Bull that he should keep his seat for 2026.

It is possible that Tsunoda could return to Racing Bulls next season. But the team are also considering Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad for their line-up.

The reality is that Tsunoda’s chances of staying in F1 are slim, as Isack Hadjar looks to be the favourite to join Red Bull. A strong end to the season, such as helping Verstappen win the title and Red Bull finishing second, could sway the decision.

It is imperative that Tsunoda keeps up the momentum from COTA and has a good weekend in Mexico City. If he does, it could buy him some time to keep his seat in 2026.