Yuki Tsunoda has been getting used to a different F1 role in 2026 – the Japanese driver taking on reserve duties for Red Bull and sister outfit Racing Bulls after losing his full-time race seat at the end of the 2025 season.
During the recent Chinese Grand Prix weekend, Tsunoda sat down with F1.com for a lengthy chat about that transition, how he reflects on his career in the top echelon to date, and his desire to get back on the grid…
One year ago, Tsunoda was gearing up for a long-awaited Red Bull promotion on home soil at Suzuka, having been drafted in to replace Liam Lawson after just two rounds of the 2025 campaign. “It can’t get crazier than this,” he told us at a demonstration event in Tokyo, shortly before hitting the track alongside Max Verstappen.
However, eight tricky months later, and despite a big effort from driver and team to make the situation work, Tsunoda got moved aside in favour of Red Bull’s next prospect, Isack Hadjar, leaving the 25-year-old to come to terms with a stint on the F1 sidelines.
It means that, for the first time in five years, Tsunoda is not part of the racing action. Instead, he is supporting Red Bull as a reserve driver – taking part in debriefs, spending time in their simulator, and generally acting as another pair of eyes and ears for the squad.
Tsunoda’s F1 rollercoaster ride
With Tsunoda free to reflect on everything he has experienced over the last few years, away from the stresses of racing every other weekend, it seems like an appropriate moment for the man himself – in a quiet corner of Red Bull’s hospitality unit at the Shanghai International Circuit – to review the journey to this point.
“It started very well – almost too well,” Tsunoda comments, looking back on his F1 debut at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix. “In the pre-season test I was P2 overall, just a few milliseconds off Max, in an AlphaTauri. Then in the first Qualifying session, Q1, Lap 1, I made it through on one set of tyres, and I was next to Lewis [Hamilton]. I felt like a hero!
“I got knocked out in Q2 after that, as I swapped to the medium tyres and didn’t adapt well, but I still scored points in the race, recovering to P9 after almost dropping to last because of a bad start. So, my first race went really well.”
It was a debut that earned plenty of praise from established paddock figures.
“I’m really impressed,” wrote Ross Brawn in his post-race column for F1.com. “He is the best rookie F1 has had for years, having been fairly stunning in whatever series he has competed in. His promotion by Red Bull looks like a brilliant move.”
Then AlphaTauri Team Principal Franz Tost added: “I must say he really did a fantastic job. We told him his aim was to come back from the first lap with a healthy car to be able to run his race, and that’s exactly what he achieved. I think we can look forward to the season ahead with him.”
As that rookie season progressed, though, Tsunoda found it difficult to balance his undeniable raw speed with consistency – further points finishes being surrounded by expensive accidents, early Qualifying exits and missed opportunities in races.
While he steadied the ship and finished the year with another standout run to fourth at the Abu Dhabi finale, questions remained over Tsunoda’s approach, temperament and fitness levels heading into his second season, as detailed in this feature.
“I think it was my third year, in the second half, when I started to feel like, ‘Okay, I’m in good shape’,” Tsunoda admits, in terms of everything starting to click. “I then thought, ‘What’s the next step?’, which would be the team leader role, being in a responsible position, and being someone the team can rely on.
“For that step you need emotional control, which was probably one of my weakest points when I started in F1. At the track, there was a lot of emotion from me to the guys on the radio, and to the engineers. Initially it was okay, but it started to get a bit too much, and especially with a responsible role you want to give feedback rather than sharing emotions.
“I almost had to change my personality. It took a little bit of time, but I think from the fourth year, in 2024, I adapted pretty well. I was able to achieve the level that I wanted to be at in terms of emotional control, and I had a strong season.”
Red Bull promotion and demotion
Indeed, then Racing Bulls team boss Laurent Mekies described Tsunoda’s 2024 campaign as “outstanding” and his most complete to date, putting him firmly in the frame for a long-awaited Red Bull promotion – only for new team mate Lawson to pip him to the job.
As it transpired, Tsunoda took over that Red Bull seat just two rounds later, with Lawson struggling to make an impact alongside reigning World Champion Verstappen, and the Sagamihara native impressing in a compliant Racing Bulls machine he had played a key role in developing.
“In 2025 I had the best start of any season – I was P5 in Qualifying in Australia, and I was P6 in the Sprint in China,” he says. “It’s a generation of car that I’d spent three years in, and part of it, for sure, was coming from my DNA. I gave a lot of feedback, and how the car was made was mostly how I requested it to the team. It was a stunning car.
“If I’d stayed at Racing Bulls, it probably would have been my strongest season, but at the same time, I had a good opportunity to move to Red Bull. It was the moment I had been waiting for – for a long time. It was also very, very special to jump in at my home Grand Prix in Japan… Definitely the biggest highlight in my life.”
Tsunoda started his Red Bull chapter with three points finishes from the first four races he completed, including bonus Sprint points in Miami, but a huge Qualifying crash at Imola – where his 2021 season had gone awry – wrote off a host of new car parts and forced him onto older specifications.
A negative spiral and a run of seven rounds outside the points followed, and while he made it back into the top 10 places in the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Austin and Qatar, Tsunoda was simply too far away from Verstappen – something experienced by many before him – to hold onto the drive beyond 2025.
“After Japan, it was definitely the toughest season in my career, and in my life,” he shares. “But at the same time, I learned quite a lot about myself, I went through a lot of things… I think as a human I grew a lot more, like personality-wise.
“Obviously you’re always exhausted after a race, and in the weeks when you don’t have a race, normally you want to kind of enjoy it and have a reset. When I was trying to do that last season, I just felt emotionally super down, and I didn’t know where it was coming from.
“I thought, ‘Okay, this is something I have to change’. I needed some external help to be happier, and to learn about myself. It was recognising that, actually, I didn’t know much about myself, because if I think about what will make me happy outside of racing, and what things will consistently give me positive energy…
“I started to think about myself, and definitely, without that season, it wouldn’t have given me that kind of solution.”
On call – and eager for a return
It is a mindset shift that helped Tsunoda deal with his eventual demotion – “surprisingly, it was okay… I felt normal” – and the confirmation that he would be on reserve duty, rather than returning to a Racing Bulls race seat, in 2026.
While there are no guarantees of getting back behind the wheel of a real-life F1 car, it has not stopped Tsunoda readying himself for any opportunities that could come his way over a Grand Prix weekend or via in-season testing.
“I actually still prepared for the season quite a lot physically,” he points out. “Now is probably the best shape I’ve been in in my life… I think physically, in terms of numbers, it’s even better than last year. I’m definitely happy with my shape, and I just need some laps for my muscles to get used to driving again.
“Sometimes I feel a little bit weird doing this kind of preparation and training, knowing that I’m not racing. But anything can happen. That’s what I also got told by the team. I’ve prepared as much as possible, I’m in the best shape, and my mental [approach] is always, ‘Okay, if the team asks me to jump in, make sure I perform’, and that’s it – just being ready.”
So, with his reserve role taking shape, how does Tsunoda feel about the year ahead – and what about his chances of one day making a full-time return?
“I think showing my face, not just at Red Bull but in the general paddock, is quite important,” he adds. “I want to still… I’m not giving up on driving in F1. Rather than going to other series and racing… That’s also partly good, because you’ll be sharp, but at the same time, you don’t know what’s going on in F1 very much.
“It was pretty tough to watch, actually, the race week in Australia. Watching from the screen was definitely something… different. I was okay at the Bahrain test, but race week was a different story, and it was really tough. At the same time, I was able to recognise how much I care about this sport, and how hungry I am to get back in a seat.
“But I’m not thinking too much about the future, because it’s not in my control. It’s more always thinking about how I can extract the [most from the] day, even the day that obviously you’re not in the best position. For example, watching from the screen is not the best position, but you can still do something.
“I’m also focusing on myself, to be in a place that I’m happy with. When you’re in an F1 season, you can’t really focus on yourself, but now I have time to think about myself, to kind of spend time to myself, and to be in a happy moment.”
