Yuki Tsunoda’s rollercoaster ride to a Red Bull seat

Yuki Tsunoda will finally get the chance to show what he can do in Red Bull Racing machinery at the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, with team chiefs calling on the 24-year-old – who had been overlooked in the past – to replace the struggling Liam Lawson. But how exactly did he get to this point? F1.com charts the ups, downs and everything in between from Tsunoda’s Formula 1 journey so far…

Fast or furious in Tsunoda’s first season

Tsunoda certainly made his mark when he arrived on the F1 grid in 2021, producing a debut charge to the points for Red Bull’s sister team, AlphaTauri, at the Bahrain Grand Prix – and earning plenty of early 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.”

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.”

After that eye-catching start and those positive assessments, though, came an abundance of mistakes, early Qualifying exits and missed opportunities on race days, as the F3 and F2 race winner struggled to balance speed and consistency.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 26: Yuki Tsunoda of Scuderia AlphaTauri and Japan during practice ahead — Tsunoda was 20 years old when he made his F1 debut as a Red Bull and Honda junior

Indeed, for every points finish the Honda-supported driver achieved, which included runs to P7 and P6 in Azerbaijan and Hungary respectively, there was a spectacular shunt that dented both his confidence and AlphaTauri’s budget.

Tsunoda also earned a reputation regarding his temper and, later in the year, he drew the ire of Red Bull’s chiefs – Christian Horner and Helmut Marko – when the senior team claimed their Qualifying efforts were “Tsunoda’d” by the youngster getting in the way of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen in Q3.

Thankfully for Tsunoda, his rookie term would finish as it started with another standout performance when he turned eighth on the grid into a brilliant fourth at the Abu Dhabi finale – and provided some evidence that he was on the right track.

Putting in the work behind the scenes

Before Tsunoda’s sophomore season began, fans got some insight into his personality and off-track approach thanks to Drive to Survive’s account of the 2021 campaign – highlighting a particular lack of enthusiasm for physical training.

HUNGARORING, HUNGARY - JULY 30: Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, walks away from his car after spinning — The newcomer’s electrifying pace was often undone by errors and session-ending crashes

The Japanese racer later admitted he was far from fit enough upon his F1 promotion – especially compared with experienced team mate Pierre Gasly, who was firing on all cylinders and spearheading AlphaTauri’s charge.

Speaking to The Race on the eve of the 2022 season, Tsunoda joked that team boss Tost – then in his mid-60s – had been “in much better shape” some 12 months earlier, with the F1 newcomer quickly realising that he “needed to work harder”.

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Aided by a relocation from the UK to Italy – to be near AlphaTauri’s headquarters in Faenza – midway through 2021, Tsunoda immersed himself in factory operations, accelerated his development in all areas, and had no escape from Tost’s fitness demands.

“He knew that in the first half of the season I was in the UK, I was training in the morning session, but in the afternoon had nothing to do, so I was just ordering UberEats with one hand and gaming the whole day, pretty much every day,” Tsunoda openly shared.

It was another up-and-down year for Tsunoda, who again scored at the Bahrain opener with a P8 finish, and earned points in three of the first races he started, only for further incidents and retirements – and a few more radio outbursts – to blot his copybook.

tost tsunoda.jpg — AlphaTauri boss Tost played a key role in Tsunoda’s development on and off the track

That said, having collected 32 points to team mate Gasly’s 110 in 2021, when AlphaTauri had a far more competitive package, their respective tallies for 2022 – under new ground effect regulations – were 12 and 23, marking a significantly reduced deficit.

Gasly, who would leave the Red Bull family for Alpine at the end of the season, had seen enough behind-the-scenes to suggest that Tsunoda was getting on top of his weaknesses and making the necessary steps to cement his place in F1.

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“I’ve really enjoyed these last two years, seeing him evolve within the team,” said the Frenchman. “Only time will tell whether he has got what it takes to lead the team. For sure, he has improved massively this year. I would not be surprised to see him improving again next season.

“I think he knows what he needs to work on: a bit of self-control. He has got good people around him, and this environment is also good for him to really develop as a better driver.”

Taking on new team mate after new team mate

So, for 2023, and his third F1 season, Tsunoda became AlphaTauri’s most experienced driver – initially teaming up with F2 champion and Williams super-sub Nyck de Vries.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - OCTOBER 27: Pierre Gasly of France and Scuderia AlphaTauri and Yuki Tsunoda — Tsunoda and Gasly developed a special rapport during their time as team mates

Despite De Vries’ heroics at Monza, Tsunoda had the measure of his new team mate from the outset and, before the campaign had even reached its midway point, Red Bull replaced the Dutchman with Daniel Ricciardo – the multiple Grand Prix winner looking to rebuild his F1 career after a troubled spell at McLaren.

Fast forward little more than a year and Ricciardo was back out of the revolving door himself, having fallen short of convincing Red Bull’s bosses that he deserved another shot with the senior outfit – not helped by Tsunoda’s upward trajectory.

While Ricciardo scored the eye-catching results during their time as team mates, such as his P7 reward at the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix and fine P4 in the Miami Sprint in 2024, Tsunoda proved to be the more consistent performer as he put Gasly’s words into action.

This was highlighted by him comfortably leading their Qualifying head-to-heads and boasting almost double the number of points following the Singapore Grand Prix, when Ricciardo lost his seat to another hungry Red Bull junior in Liam Lawson.

Lawson, who had also substituted for the injured Ricciardo in 2023, posed a sterner test over the final six rounds, but Tsunoda still had the edge in Qualifying and race trim, and new team boss Laurent Mekies – who took over from Tost at a rebranded RB squad for 2024 – very much liked what he had seen.

After Gasly’s exit, Tsunoda spent time alongside several drivers at AlphaTauri/RB

“It was all together an outstanding season from his side,” he said of Tsunoda’s fourth year, which included nine Grand Prix points finishes, a remarkable third on the grid amid changeable weather in Brazil and a personal best of 12th in the Drivers’ Championship.

“I think he has made a step this season that nobody could forecast, and it’s something he should be proud of.”

Being overlooked for a seat at the senior team

But while he had clearly made steps, Tsunoda found himself in a holding position at RB, partly due to lingering Red Bull doubts over his mentality, and partly because of the aforementioned Perez, who was signed by Red Bull for the 2021 season – the drinks company looking outside their own talent pool after Gasly and Alex Albon’s difficulties at the senior team.

With Perez helping Red Bull win both world titles in that first year and going on to finish third and second in the 2022 and 2023 Drivers’ Standings respectively, having worked through some of his own struggles, the squad saw no reason to change their line-up.

However, in 2024, shortly after being rewarded with another new contract, Perez’s form nosedived – the Mexican finishing eighth in the standings on 152 points compared to World Champion team mate Verstappen on 437 points.

LUSAIL CITY, QATAR - NOVEMBER 29: Sergio Perez of Mexico and Oracle Red Bull Racing prepares to — Perez’s woes opened the door at Red Bull, but would they pick Lawson or Tsunoda to replace him?

After four seasons of relative stability, Red Bull decided that enough was enough and parted ways with Perez during the winter break – meaning, for the first time since Tsunoda debuted in F1, there would be an opening next to Verstappen.

Speaking a few weeks earlier about Red Bull’s apparent unwillingness to promote him, and the likelihood of Lawson getting the nod for 2025 instead, Tsunoda commented: “I always say that I definitely deserve that seat. I can’t say more than that. It’s up to them.

“But this thing, I can’t control. It’s just part of life. I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. Whenever they keep sending their driver to me to beat me, I just keep destroying them, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Lawson, with only 11 starts compared to Tsunoda’s 87, was ultimately given the chance.

Tsunoda gets the call – but can he crack the code?

Just a few months and two races on from axing Perez and promoting Lawson, Red Bull found themselves with a major driver-related headache – the New Zealander’s results falling well below their expectations in Australia and China.

Rather than mixing it in Q3 and scoring points, Lawson dropped out in Q1 and crashed out of the race at the rain-hit season opener, then qualified last for both the Sprint and Grand Prix a week later, as he battled to tame the RB21.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - FEBRUARY 27: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan driving the (22) Visa Cash App Racing Bulls — With Lawson dropped after just two races, it is Tsunoda’s turn to show we he can do

Lawson seemingly had more questions than answers after every session he spent in the car, repeatedly talking about a “very small window” of performance.

For some, it reinforced what Perez said through 2024 about how difficult Red Bull’s car had become to drive, issues “so big that even Max is feeling them”, while there were plenty who sympathised with Lawson’s plight, particularly given he had never driven in Melbourne or Shanghai before.

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At the same time, Tsunoda’s lightning quick start to the 2025 campaign – alongside rookie Isack Hadjar at the renamed Racing Bulls – got the paddock talking about him originally being overlooked.

Red Bull’s latest dramatic reshuffle means Tsunoda (still only in his mid-20s) will make his debut as Verstappen’s team mate on home soil at the Japanese Grand Prix, at the Suzuka circuit owned by long-time backers Honda – a story only F1 can seem to produce.

So, what are the chances of this next chapter being a dream scenario rather than the nightmare endured by the likes of Lawson, Gasly and Albon?

Liam Lawson replaced by Yuki Tsunoda

Tsunoda does, at least, have a positive outing at last year’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi to take confidence from, an experience that left him feeling “happy more than ever” when I spoke to him in a break between on-track runs.

While the RB20 and RB21 are different beasts, Tsunoda enjoyed his time behind the wheel of last year’s challenger, and earned praise from Red Bull for how he conducted himself throughout the test – which included providing “excellent feedback”.

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“I mean, it’s the first different car I’ve driven in the last four years,” he said at the time. “I’m feeling the reason why this car is fighting for the championship. I feel quite a difference between what I was driving [at RB and this].

“To be honest, I didn’t really struggle much to adapt. Even on the long run, I was able to drive quite consistently, and I straight away felt the limitations of the car… If you don’t have confidence in the car, you can’t feel any limitations, so that’s a good sign, a good start.”

Now there’s a surprise opportunity to build on it and show Red Bull that he has what it takes to reach the top of the sport.