F1 | Red Bull looks to give Yuki Tsunoda Max Verstappen’s upgraded floor in Baku showdown. Red Bull plans to bring the updated floor used by Max Verstappen at Monza also to Yuki Tsunoda in Baku.

Red Bull Racing comes to Baku after a dominant weekend at Monza, where Max Verstappen claimed an impressive victory at the Italian Grand Prix. The Dutchman benefitted from an updated floor combined with a low-downforce setup first studied at Zandvoort and later refined at Monza.

The low-drag configuration appears to be a promising path for the Milton Keynes team on circuits such as Monza and Baku. The new floor delivered encouraging feedback, even if it did not translate into huge performance gains on the stopwatch.

At Monza, the updated floor was fitted only on Max Verstappen’s RB21, while Yuki Tsunoda raced with the previous specification. Red Bull’s engineers are now working to make sure the Japanese driver can also use the upgraded version in Azerbaijan. This comes at a crucial stage of the season and of Tsunoda’s career, as he is fighting for his future within Red Bull alongside Verstappen in 2026.

“To be completely transparent, we only had the floor update on Max’s car,” explained Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies. “We believe it could be… There will be no more small upgrades, because at this point that is all they can be. Now we hope to have the update available on both cars for the next race in Baku. I think it worked well at Monza.”

Mekies stressed that the development is not a game-changing leap but still meaningful. “We are confident that the upgrade on the floor is a small step in the right direction, so we are not talking about a few tenths. To be clear, it is a small gain in performance, but everything matters and every detail is important.”

Tsunoda, however, is the hot topic within the Anglo-Austrian team. Max Verstappen has been the cornerstone of the project for years, with Red Bull’s priority being to guarantee him a competitive car and keep him in Milton Keynes. But the driver alongside him could soon change.

Since replacing Liam Lawson, Tsunoda has struggled to convince Red Bull’s management. The former Racing Bulls driver now has only a few races left to alter a career trajectory that looks increasingly uncertain. He must prove himself to Laurent Mekies and Helmut Marko if he wants to secure another chance. Looming behind him, though, is the rising shadow of young talent Isack Hadjar.

“As for Tsunoda, I think there is more work to do on his race pace than on qualifying performance. That is why we are giving him more time,” Mekies noted.

“His first stint in Monza was compromised by traffic, and the second was affected by damage to the car. If I think back to the last two races, he faced fairly similar situations. It is difficult to draw clear conclusions from these circumstances,” Mekies concluded.