Former Japanese F1 driver shares ominous meme as Yuki Tsunoda becomes Max Verstappen's third teammate in 4 races

Yuki Tsunoda is all set to become Max Verstappen's latest teammate at Red Bull from the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix. With this, he will become his third teammate in four races! Reacting to the announcement, former Japanese F1 driver Taki Inoue shared an ominous meme on social media involving multiple Red Bull drivers.

Inoue, a former F1 driver from the land of the rising sun, who raced in the pinnacle of Motorsports in the 1990s, shared the popular 'death knocking on doors' meme, and this time it involved all of Max Verstappen's Red Bull teammates.

The meme started with the death in disguise of Red Bull killing Alex Albon, Verstappen's former teammate. He then moved to Sergio Perez and then to Liam Lawson. After killing three aforementioned drivers, death was now finally in front of Tsunoda's door.

Here's the meme by Taki Inoue on X:

Notably, Inoue, through the meme, depicted how the second Red Bull seat was tough to hold on to, and going by paddock chatters, it was cursed. Over the years, Verstappen has seen six drivers be his teammates at the Milton Keynes-based team since he joined in 2016.

From Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon to Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson, and now Yuki Tsunoda. None of the previous drivers managed to match the four-time world champion and keep hold of their seat. With death knocking at Tsunoda's door, it will be interesting to see how the Japanese driver manages to deal with it.

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How have Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda performed so far in 2025?

Red Bull's decision to swap the drivers has come amid the back-to-back underwhelming performances by Liam Lawson in Australia and China. In the season-opener in Melbourne, the Kiwi driver was out in Q1 of the qualifying (P18) and had to retire from the race due to a reliability issue.

Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Visa Cash App RB - Source: Getty

In the Sprint shootout in China, Lawson qualified in P20 and came home in the Sprint race in P14. Main race qualifying was no better, with another P20 on his bag and a P12 finish in the race. As a result, Lawson had no points in his tally after two races and a sprint, whereas his teammate, Max Verstappen, claimed 36 points.

Compared to him, Yuki Tsunoda had a significantly better performance in the Racing Bulls. The Japanese driver qualified in P5 in Australia and ended his race in P12. In the Sprint shootout in China, he qualified in P8 and came home in the Sprint in P6.

In the main race qualifying, Tsunoda, once again, made it to Q3 and qualified in P9 but missed out on a good finish after Racing Bulls pulled off a miscalculated pit stop strategy. The Japanese driver has three points in his tally after two races and a Sprint.