Helmut Marko casts judgement on Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull debut

Helmut Marko has cast his verdict on Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull debut at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

Tsunoda made a positive start to his first race weekend as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate but was eliminated from Q2 with the 15-fastest time and could only finish 12th in Sunday’s grand prix at Suzuka.

It ended up being a disappointing weekend on home soil for Tsunoda, who was promoted to Red Bull just two races into the 2025 season after Liam Lawson’s terrible start.

Speaking to Sky Germany after Sunday’s race, Red Bull motorsport advisor Marko praised Tsunoda for a “solid” first outing in the RB21.

“Overtaking here is incredibly difficult. He drove a solid race, but it shows how important qualifying is,” Marko said.

He added in a separate interview with Motorsport: “It was good. It was just unlucky that in Qualifying 2 he had this mistake. But otherwise it was fine.”

In the other Red Bull, Verstappen fended off a race-long challenge from the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to claim his first victory of the year.

Speaking about Tsunoda, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: "He has dialled himself into the car and team. He should make a step forward over the next few races. 

"He made one pass and then we undercut Pierre Gasly. His pace was good, but he was looking at the back of Fernando Alonso’s rear wing for basically that entire second stint.

"Qualifying dictated 90 per cent of those finishing positions today. I think he’s learned a lot out of this weekend.

"He’s given great feedback. He’s fitted into the team, and his time will come."

Yuki Tsunoda left with mixed feelings

While Tsunoda was happy with the progress he made with Red Bull’s tricky 2025 car, he was ultimately left rueing missing out on a points finish at his home race. 

"I'm happy with the race, in terms of my performance, but obviously, in terms of results, it's quite tough, especially for my home Grand Prix,” Tsunoda said.

"I was definitely expecting more, and you know, at least I wanted to finish in a point, so it's mixed feelings.

"The 53, 54 laps I got in this race was the most laps I had in this car. Every lap I was learning, and finally, I got decent laps in the car, and I definitely feel more confidence in the car. I just feel overall controlled more towards the end of the race.

"I'm happy considering the amount of time I had, but because of [it being my] home Grand Prix, I just wanted to finish in the points. I just have to build the pace. It's fortunate that there's Max that I can learn from.

“So I just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm excited for Bahrain actually.”

Red Bull are yet to score a point with their second car and are third in the constructors’ championship, 50 points behind McLaren.