Red Bull make 'very clear' second seat decison as Isack Hadjar stars

Laurent Mekies has handed Yuki Tsunoda a massive boost about his F1 future by insisting it is "very clear" he will remain as Max Verstappen's team-mate for the rest of the season. 

The Japanese racer was promoted to join Verstappen from his home race onwards, but in the 13 rounds thus far, Tsunoda has scored just nine points and been well behind Verstappen on pace, suffering multiple Q1 exits.

Since Christian Horner was removed as team boss in July, Tsunoda has secured a Red Bull tenure best of seventh on the grid in Belgium, ended his points drought with ninth in Zandvoort, and performed admirably compared to Verstappen in Hungary. 

Whilst Tsunoda has struggled, his former Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar has starred in his rookie season, with the highlight being a maiden F1 podium with third at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Hadjar has spoken of the fact that if Red Bull elected to promote him, he would like the decision to be made in time for the new 2026 season rather than being a mid-season substitute.

When questioned about the situation, Red Bull boss Mekies has been firm that Tsunoda will remain for the rest of the year.

"I think the short answer is yes," Mekies responded when asked by RacingNews365 if Tsunoda had the Red Bull seat for the remainder of the season.

"We've made it very clear, very public, that we have time with our driver decision, and we have enough drivers between the programme to cover quite a few scenarios for next year.

"We don't have a real reason to rush into the decisions, and to your point, no, we do not plan to change during the season.

"Yuki has been making a good step in the last three races. We want more, but he is doing a good job. He was back in the points for the first time in seven races in Zandvoort, he was close to Max in Budapest, and he qualified his best with the team at Spa, so he is on a positive trend.

"It is extremely nice to watch Isack progress in the Racing Bulls car, and to see him performing at the level he did in the last race, which was a fantastic demonstration of how much progress he has made.

"But we are really relaxed about the driver topic, because fundamentally, we have all the cards on the Red Bull side, and we can take a few more weeks or months to decide.

"Of course, that doesn't mean you have to wait for the last race to decide, because we obviously respect that it might impact our drivers in one way or another, but for sure, we feel like we have time right now."