Why Christian Horner being sacked by Red Bull could save Yuki Tsunoda’s Formula 1 career

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Christian Horner has been sacked as team principal and CEO of Red Bull. He has brought incredible success to the Milton Keynes outfit since they joined Formula 1 in 2005.

His exit comes at the halfway point of the 2025 season, as Red Bull have dropped off dramatically in performance. The team are fourth in the constructors’ championship, 288 points behind McLaren, having scored fewer points than Sauber in the last four races.

Max Verstappen had called for Horner’s power to be limited, or for him to be outright sacked. The Dutchman has been frustrated by the lack of progress with the RB21 and how difficult it is to drive; that cannot be proven any more than by the struggles of the second car.

Horner promoted Liam Lawson over Yuki Tsunoda from Racing Bulls for 2025, citing that the Kiwi driver had a higher ceiling. He ended up being dropped after two races, as he failed to score points or get out of Q1.

Tsunoda replaced him from the Japanese Grand Prix and has since only scored seven points as he struggles to get his car out of last place in races. Tsunoda’s pace was matched by Arvid Lindblad during practice at Silverstone as he is in desperate need of a revival in form.

Laurent Mekies replacing Christian Horner at Red Bull could save Yuki Tsunoda

Horner did not rate the Japanese driver enough to outright promote him to Red Bull in 2025 and he is now in a car in which he is desperately lacking confidence. But his sacking could be exactly what he needs to improve.

Laurent Mekies will replace Horner at Red Bull, with the Racing Bulls boss earning a promotion. The Frenchman knows Tsunoda very well from the junior team and has consistently spoken highly about his talent.

Mekies talked up Tsunoda’s improvements over the years before his Red Bull debut at Suzuka, as he said via quotes from the F1 website: “He’s able to turn up to a race weekend and, from the first lap of FP1 to the last lap of the race, do just a purely faultless weekend.

“Of course, we [at Racing Bulls] are not fast enough for that to be visible to most of you guys, but we have seen him executing weekends, or qualifications, or races under serious pressure.

“Take Melbourne – he put the car in P5 there on the dry, I think it’s his best Qualifying ever.

“Take the Sprint Race in China – he finished P6 with huge pressure from faster cars behind him, didn’t put a foot wrong. So what you see outside of the car is certainly turning up into very tangible improvements when he’s driving the car.”

Mekies has faith in the 25-year-old and his ability, which Tsunoda proved with the steps he made at the start of 2025 with Racing Bulls, qualifying fifth in Melbourne and finishing sixth in the Sprint in Shanghai. Having that belief in him within the team could be vital for his F1 career.

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Yuki Tsunoda is likely to lose his seat in 2026 – Laurent Mekies can help him turn things around

Tsunoda ‘jeopardised’ his career by switching teams in 2025, having displayed stronger performance at Racing Bulls. He is now fighting for his future in F1, with his contract being up at the end of the season.

Tsunoda has an almost 0%’ chance of staying on the grid in 2026 as he is set to be dropped by Red Bull. With the Japanese driver sitting 17th in the standings, Isack Hadjar is being tipped as the favourite to replace him.

Cadillac are admirers of Tsunoda, but he would be far down their list of options for 2026, with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez in the driving seat for a contract. With a long-term stay at Red Bull looking unlikely, Mekies could be the person to help the 25-year-old turn his form around.

The Frenchman has confidence in Tsunoda and will certainly help in every way he can to ensure he has a strong second half of the season. He already knows that the Japanese driver has improved over the years; it is exactly the motivation the Red Bull driver needs right now.