F1 driver faces axe and told he needs to 'shape up' in six-word warning

Guenther Steiner believes that 'Yuki Tsunoda needs to make points' or he risks being dropped by Red Bull. The Japanese racer was called up to replace Liam Lawson just two rounds into the 2025 campaign, but has failed to produce the expected upturn in results.

Tsunoda's season has been a frustrating one until now. He started the year finishing outside the top 10 in both Australia and China, but a sprint race P6 in Shanghai proved enough to convince Christian Horner and Helmut Marko that he was ready to replace Lawson alongside Max Verstappen.

Unfortunately for the 25-year-old, he has been left fighting for scraps in the 10 races since, with a best Grand Prix finish of ninth. Tsunoda has contributed just seven of Red Bull's 172 points in 2025, and things are trending in the wrong direction. Heading into the Belgian Grand Prix, he hasn't finished higher than 12th in his last five outings.

"Yuki Tsunoda needs to make points," former Haas team principal Steiner told the Red Flags podcast. "Otherwise I really think latest end of the year, he's out of there, but it could be before.

"As much we love Yuki, because I love him as well, it's one of these things. He needs to bring the performance. I think this is saying, 'We let Christian Horner go, we changed Liam Lawson.' So it's one of these things. If he doesn't shape up, he will not be there for a long time anymore."

Fortunately for Tsunoda, the change of leadership at Red Bull could benefit him. Last week, after 20 years as CEO and team principal, Horner was sacked. His replacement is Laurent Mekies, with whom the Japanese racer worked last year at Racing Bulls.

Mekies knows how talented Tsunoda is and how to extract the best out of the Kanagawa-born racer. However, whether or not he can help him adapt to the ill-handling RB21 remains to be seen.

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For Steiner, the decision to sack Horner came as a shock. "I was pretty surprised as well when it happened," he explained. "I mean, you know that there was something going on at Red Bull, I think we all were aware of it.

"We cannot say 'Oh, we didn't know that something was going on' because it's more than a year now since we had whatever it was called, that scandal in the beginning of last year. It wasn't happy days anymore at Red Bull, I would say. But I didn't expect that.

"I mean, if something like this happens, normally Red Bull is pretty good in managing it a little bit, but this came completely out of the blue to me. Obviously, maybe not at Red Bull, but I think nothing was out there that it will happen. You know, things change and things move on."