Since realising his ambition of being promoted to Red Bull after four seasons competing with its sister team in its various guises, Yuki Tsunoda could not have endured a worse time.
Like Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson before him, Tsunoda has driven a car engineered around the very different characteristics of Max Verstappen, and one he has found difficult to adapt to and set up to his liking.
It means the Japanese driver has struggled in qualifying, finding himself considerably adrift on the grid to Verstappen, and then finding it difficult to make his way through the field in a grand prix.
In his 14 grands prix to date, Tsunoda has scored a paltry nine points and is 19th of 21 drivers in the standings. Only Jack Doohan, ditched after six races by Alpine, and the Australian's replacement, Franco Colapinto, are below him.
To further compound Tsunoda's problems, Isack Hadjar is enjoying a superb rookie season, pushing himself in contention to be Verstappen's next team-mate in 2026.
Tsunoda has eight races to seemingly save his Red Bull seat, and he knows what he has to achieve, with points the natural target.
Is Tsunoda facing the end of his F1 career, or simply his time at Red Bull and he will be demoted to Racing Bulls for next season? Or could he yet be given another season, in what you would assume would be equal machinery to Verstappen given the major change to the cars over the winter?
Over to you, our loyal readers, to determine the likely outcome for Tsunoda based on the evidence so far. So vote now in our latest RacingNews365 poll, and please do leave a comment.
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on the Italian Grand Prix! Max Verstappen's dominant win is a lead discussion, as is whether McLaren has set a precedent with its controversial team orders.
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