When not finishing and the points, and your teammate is second, uncomfortable questions would inevitably be asked. That was the case for Yuki Tsunoda, who knows that his seat is under threat for the 2026 season.
However, the Japanese driver believes that there are positives to take from his point-less drive, which was hampered by a poor qualifying and lap one.
The Japanese driver started from 13th place, but was relegated to 17th by the end of the first lap. And with the degree of difficulty in overtaking around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, he was always going to struggle to reach the potential of his pace.
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Speaking to formula1.com, Tsunoda said: "Today's first lap was the worst one that I have ever had. I lost so many positions and just didn't have any space to move, every time I tried there was another car there which left no room for me. It was the same at every corner on that first lap when I was trying to overtake.
"What is really frustrating is that my pace today was really, really good, the best that I have had since being with the team, and definitely enough to put me in the points. The long and short run is feeling so great which was the complete opposite, before Baku."
Why Tsunoda has to look at the positives
There is little other way of putting it, Tsunoda's future in the sport, let alone at Red Bull, is under threat. Furthermore, there is every chance that Red Bull pick their second driver for 2026, to partner Max Verstappen, this month and that leaves only the United States and Mexico City Grand Prix as the races where Tsunoda can further his case.
In what is believed to be a straight shoot-out between the Japanese driver and Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, the current Red Bull driver has been unable to string together the positive aspects of his respective weekends.
Before the summer break, he had appeared to find a breakthrough with the RB21, particularly with its low-fuel running, even if there was still more to be desired on the higher-fuel execution.
But with the exception of Azerbaijan, where he finished in sixth, he has been rarely able to put together a complete weekend. Despite being pleased with his race pace, he was still eight tenths shy of Max Verstappen, in qualifying, and qualified 11 places beneath the Dutchman.
Grateful to see Yuki Tsunoda walk away from this enormous shunt in Q1#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/hsviPlI66P
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2025
And with a poor start, any potential that Tsunoda had and any precious point that he could score simply could not be realised, and he languished down in P12, over a lap behind Verstappen.
Considering that he has also only scored 20 points, in the 16 races in which he has driven for the senior Red Bull team, having had some expensive crashes a long the way, are these mini-positives going to be at all significant once the Red Bull hierarchy make their decision?
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