Red Bull Racing Formula One driver Yuki Tsunoda revealed that he does not like to be compared to his teammate, Max Verstappen. Tsunoda joined Red Bull at his home race in Japan this year, and with only a few races in the RB21 F1 car, he said it would not be “fair” to be compared with Verstappen, especially since their cars are different.
Verstappen went down in F1’s history books as one of the greatest drivers, given his dominance in the last four years that saw him clinch four championship titles. The 2025 season marks Verstappen’s first year in the current ground-effect era, where he isn’t leading the championship.
This is due to problems with Red Bull’s RB21 that the team is pressed to solve, alongside the tightening of the F1 grid due to consistent regulations. However, because the car is reportedly designed around Verstappen, his teammates have often struggled to match his performance.
In the past year, the Dutch driver has had three teammates who struggled with Red Bull’s title challenger. Sergio Perez was ousted after the 2024 season due to performance concerns, while his replacement, Liam Lawson, was demoted to junior F1 team Racing Bulls after the first two rounds of 2025.
The story isn’t much different for Tsunoda, who finds it challenging to adapt to the RB21. In the 11 races since his Red Bull promotion, the Japanese driver has scored just seven points and is placed 17th in the Drivers’ Standings, while Verstappen is in third place in the championship with 185 points, of which 149 were secured in the last 11 races.
When asked about the performance comparison with Verstappen, Tsunoda admitted that his teammate was the best driver on the grid at present, but refused to be compared with him. He told the media ahead of the Hungarian GP:
“Yeah, he is, I can say, the current best driver on the grid. How he always extracts performance from the [car], consistently, every session, every grand prix, it’s very impressive. It’s one of the things that you can [not] do very easily, and it seems like he can. He does it very easily.
“But at the same time, I don’t think it’s just really fair to compare [us], and I don’t want [to be] directly compared with him.”
Tsunoda highlighted that his car was different from Verstappen’s. This is likely due to the different upgrade packages their cars are running on. He added:
“Because of, like I said, he’s had nine years in the [Red Bull] car, and I’m just jumping into the car. Let’s see if I get exactly the same car.
“Now, at that point, I can compare directly, but until then, I just focus on myself, because I know pretty well I can improve, and I just progress in my way, step by step.
“But a good thing about being with him, he’s just able to learn a lot of things very quickly because he’s done it. He does a lot of things that I’ve never done.
“He’s always able to kind of be a good reference. I can confirm something when I try something. So, yeah, he’s an impressive guy, and definitely I recognise that he’s a good driver.”
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