As Max Verstappen roared away at the front of Formula 1's Italian Grand Prix last weekend, it will not have gone amiss on the Red Bull pitwall that there was a spell where its other car was bringing up the rear.
After being one of the earliest stoppers, Yuki Tsunoda found himself needing to push past those who had undercut him - but he damaged his floor in a clash with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson at the second chicane.
With the RB21 hobbled, his pace fell away. Tsunoda finished 13th - his 10th grand prix without scoring in 14 attempts since his switch to the senior team for the third round of the season.
Even in normal circumstances that would never be a good result, but at a time when the Japanese driver is fighting to save his seat, and at risk of losing his place in F1 entirely if Red Bull chooses to change direction, repeated disappointing Sundays are becoming a major problem.
His biggest weakness has now been exposed.
A different kind of problem
What is especially interesting about the situation Tsunoda is in is that his struggles to shine alongside Verstappen are not in the areas where his predecessors have fallen short.
Time and again, for example, Sergio Perez would see his weekend derailed by a disastrous qualifying but then pull off a bit of a charge on Sunday thanks to strong race pace to haul himself forward.
Lawson lost his drive at Red Bull after just two races this season because he had had a shocking run of qualifying results; he was the second-slowest driver on the track in Australia and then was at the back of the grid for the China sprint and grand prix.
For Red Bull, that single-lap pace gap to Verstappen was simply not acceptable.
Tsunoda had his struggles early on in qualifying, too - but some of this was clouded by the fact that ever since his Q1 accident at the Emilia Romagna GP in mid-May, he had had an upgrade offset to Verstappen.
Since Belgium, when the parity has been much closer, his situation changed a lot and team boss Laurent Mekies has been quite clear that he is not worried at all by Tsunoda's single-lap pace now.
In Italy, for example, taking into account the fact that Tsunoda had the older floor specification and a higher downforce wing, Red Bull says it had been a positive weekend for Tsunoda - up until the race.
Here is how he stacked up in the three qualifying segments, with the gap in Q3 being exacerbated because Tsunoda ended up being the first car on track for the final runs so he was left without a tow.
Verstappen vs Tsunoda, Monza qualifying
Q1
Verstappen: 1m19.455s
Tsunoda: 1m19.619s
Q2
Verstappen: 1m19.141s
Tsunoda: 1m19.433s
Q3
Verstappen: 1m18.792s
Tsunoda: 1m19.519s
Taking into account the elements that exaggerated the gap in Q3, Mekies was clear that things are where they need to be on Saturdays.
"I look at qualifying, and I still qualify it as a good weekend," he said. "He was two tenths from Max in Q1, and Max was not exactly slow this weekend.
"Then, with a small deficit from the car, he was two tenths from Max in Q2 and there is no doubt everybody is pushing 100% in Q2. Yes, the gap was bigger in Q3 - but first, he put the car in Q3, which is a very good performance.
"And second, he was first on the road in Q3, it didn't help as well. Short-run pace, I think was a very good sample for Yuki. Long-run pace, it's frustrating not to have a clean race data."
That final sentence is a reference to the biggest annoyance Red Bull has right now; in that it is finding itself unable to properly judge just what Tsunoda's potential in races is.
As happened at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort, the Italian GP was another weekend where Tsunoda was stuck in a DRS train - so it was impossible to get an understanding of what he could do if unleashed properly.
Asked by The Race after Monza about what he wanted to see from Tsunoda, Mekies said: "I'm tempted to tell you 'clean samples', because today was a poor sample.
"The races at the front are very clean. You get at least a good stint to read your performance, but here it was very difficult to get anything out of today.
"The first stint in traffic, the second stint with the car damage. If I look back the last couple of races, it's quite similar.
"It is correct to say that we probably have more work to do on the race pace than the quali pace with Yuki. But again, it's also why we are giving ourselves a bit more time."
A looming deadline
Tsunoda is well aware that the pressure on him to deliver the dataset that his Red Bull bosses want is increasing, but time is running out - with the squad certain to make its decision on 2026 before the end of the season.
And after another weekend when Red Bull was given some more robust data from Isack Hadjar, who charged from the pitlane to finish 10th, Tsunoda was not blind to the likely direction of travel if he does not turn things around.
That is perhaps why he was so frustrated about the clash with Lawson. He labelled it a "very frustrating and very unnecessary move from" the driver he replaced as he suggested there was an extra edge to Lawson rivalry.
After all, the likelihood is that one of them is going to find themselves squeezed out of the Red Bull family at the end of the year.
Tsunoda added: "I was gaining one second per lap. He started last and he was not even fighting for points. I don't know, if you're fighting for points, that's a move I can understand because even with the sister team, we're enemies.
"And especially this position where I'm sitting now [he] is probably my most high competition, out of any world - but at the same time, there's a line that you can't cross. What's the point, you know? I was fighting [for] points. And he wasn't. I don't know what to say."
Tsunoda accepted that what he is delivering at the moment is not good enough, but the fact that his qualifying form is hitting the mark did at least give him some encouragement that staying at Red Bull is not a lost cause yet.
"It's a tough situation but at the same time [my] quali lap is getting better and better," he said. "There's some positives, which helps me a lot.
"This weekend in terms of short runs, until Q2, I was consistently behind Max two tenths. We know there's a different floor - and in Q3, I know what exactly happened. It cost me quite a big difference. It's getting there.
"But long runs, there's room that I can work on a little bit more, but at the same time, like today, which didn't help me from the damage, it's not easy. But I just have to keep fighting and turn up and believe in myself."
Now, more than ever, Tsunoda needs to deliver a complete weekend. As the Red Bull incumbent, he still has the power to win over the bosses when it comes to that 2026 decision. But the window to do so in is getting ever smaller.
Reflecting on the decision-making progress, Tsunoda said: "Whether it's enough or it's not enough, it's up to them. I'm just squeezing the performance from the current package I've got.
"I'm just pushing every single room that they gave me, to prove that I'm able to make the progress race by race, really.
"But also at the same time we need the points. That's something that we can see clearly on the paper and that's what I'm working on."
