Yuki Tsunoda didn’t lose his Formula 1 seat quietly. In Abu Dhabi at the end of last season, the frustration was written all over him — and, when asked directly, he didn’t bother to dress it up.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed, and p***ed off,” Tsunoda admitted after Red Bull informed him his five-year run as a race driver was over, at least for now. He’d finished 2025 believing he’d done enough to keep a place in the organisation, particularly with the senior team, only to see Red Bull reshuffle its deck: Isack Hadjar promoted to the main squad and Arvid Lindblad installed at Racing Bulls. That left Tsunoda stranded in the most awkward place a driver can be in this sport — still inside the system, but out of the cockpit.
Red Bull’s decision wasn’t to cut him loose. Instead, Tsunoda has been kept on as reserve driver for both Red Bull and Racing Bulls for 2026, with Laurent Mekies describing his value in terms of support for the “2026 projects moving forwards.” That wording matters. This isn’t a courtesy role; it’s a strategic one.
The 2026 reset is exactly the kind of environment where teams lean hard on continuity, and Tsunoda is one of the few people in the Red Bull ecosystem who can talk credibly across both garages. He knows how the senior team’s car behaves, and he knows the sister team’s machinery too — not from a simulator briefing, but from lived weekends, feedback loops, and all the tiny compromises that never make it into the public debrief. Even with the 2026 cars set to be radically different — shorter, lighter and featuring active aerodynamics — the value of a driver who understands how Red Bull and Racing Bulls have historically chased performance, and where those philosophies have bitten them, shouldn’t be underestimated.
That’s also why Tsunoda’s situation is more volatile than it looks on paper. With rookies effectively installed at both Red Bull teams, the reserve driver suddenly becomes more than an insurance policy. If either Hadjar or Lindblad struggles to stabilise their performances, or if the early 2026 development direction needs a driver who can translate uncertainty into usable engineering direction, Tsunoda is the obvious plug-and-play solution. He doesn’t need “bedding in”; he already speaks the language of the organisation.
Stefano Domenicali, speaking during the launch of Honda’s 2026 engine, didn’t hide the reality of what that means for Tsunoda’s mindset this year. The F1 CEO urged him to treat the reserve role like a hair-trigger opportunity.
“So you know very well this year,” Domenicali said. “Yuki Tsunoda will be a third driver. He has to be resilient, because if chances will come, he needs to be ready.
“That’s my wishes to him, because he’s a great guy, and I’m sure that he will be ready. It will be a call because that’s the nature of a sport.
“We don’t have to forget for one we start this year with 22 seats in the world. So it’s not easy.”
There’s a blunt truth in that last line. Seats are scarce, careers are short, and the sport rarely offers neat redemption arcs. What Tsunoda has, though, is proximity — to two teams, and to a regulation change that will scramble pecking orders and amplify the importance of driver feedback in the early races.
Tsunoda himself made clear he’d had outside interest, but his Red Bull contract boxed him in.
“Well, I didn’t have options,” he said. “So the thing is, my contract was there so I couldn’t do much. I had a couple of interests from externally, but my contract doesn’t really allow me to talk a lot with them, whatever.”
So 2026 becomes a waiting game — but not a passive one. Reserves can drift into irrelevance if they’re not embedded in the day-to-day work, yet Tsunoda’s dual role across Red Bull and Racing Bulls suggests he’ll be used heavily, especially with both teams breaking in new race drivers at once. If Red Bull wants honest reference points between its two operations during a year of fundamental change, Tsunoda is about as close to a control sample as it can get.
The other subplot is Honda — because while Tsunoda remains in Red Bull colours, his longstanding backer has now moved to partner with Aston Martin. That doesn’t alter Tsunoda’s 2026 job description, but it does shape the medium-term picture, and it’s already introduced a layer of negotiation over how he can be “utilised” while tied to Red Bull.
Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation, confirmed talks are ongoing and framed it as a three-way reality involving Red Bull and Ford as well.
“Regarding this year’s contract with Tsunoda, negotiations are ongoing so no specific agreement has been finalised yet,” Watanabe said. “From Honda’s perspective, there’s no problem. The crucial point is how Ford, or rather Red Bull, views the situation.
“Depending on the terms Red Bull proposes, the scope within which Honda can utilise Tsunoda will change… I believe that scenario is possible.
“The negotiations are not with Tsunoda himself, but with Red Bull.”
That last sentence is telling: Tsunoda’s future, at least for the moment, is being discussed in boardrooms more than briefing rooms. Still, within the pure sporting logic of 2026, his best argument remains the simplest one — be ready, be useful, and force the teams to remember what they’ve parked on the bench.
And if an opportunity appears mid-season, nobody will need to sell Tsunoda on the urgency. He’s already angry enough to treat a phone call like a starting light.
