‘You never know’: Mekies backs Tsunoda to rebound after Red Bull reserve switch
Yuki Tsunoda’s full‑time F1 run is pausing, not ending — that’s the message from team boss Laurent Mekies, who believes the Japanese driver can fight his way back onto the grid after being moved into a Red Bull reserve role for 2026.
“It has been very difficult decisions to take,” Mekies said when asked about the call to step Tsunoda back after a turbulent 2025 alongside Max Verstappen. “The second seat in Red Bull Racing is not an easy one. We have tried everything we could to support Yuki… I hope, and I think, that Yuki will get another chance.”
If the past 12 months told us anything, it’s that Red Bull doesn’t do slowly. Tsunoda finished 2024 in the form of his F1 life yet was initially overlooked for a 2025 Red Bull seat, with Liam Lawson getting the nod. Two races later, the script flipped: Tsunoda was bumped up to the senior team after carrying that same sharpness into the new season, while Lawson’s promotion proved a touch too soon. It was a classic Red Bull pivot — ruthless, reactive, and entirely in keeping with its history.
From there, the mountain only steepened. Matching Verstappen in equal machinery is motorsport’s hardest day job, and Tsunoda’s season became a fight to hang onto the same rhythm that earned him the call-up in the first place. As the speculation built, Red Bull moved to lock its 2026 plan: Isack Hadjar will step into the senior team, British rookie Arvid Lindblad will join Racing Bulls, and Tsunoda will switch to third driver duties.
Mekies, who has worked with Tsunoda across both Red Bull‑affiliated teams, knows how much that stings. “It was very difficult for him to digest… he went into the winter thinking, ‘Was he going to get a chance one day or another?’ He came back, we set ourselves the objective to shoot for the stars — and three races after, he was driving in that Oracle Red Bull Racing team. So you never know where the future lies.”
It’s a point worth underlining. At Red Bull, reserve isn’t exile — it’s the waiting room next to the operating theatre. Calendar pressure, form swings, injuries, regulation resets: the sport devours plans for breakfast. And this operation has a reputation for “fairly swift driver decisions,” as Mekies dryly noted. Doors close, doors open, sometimes on the same weekend.
There’s also the human angle. Tsunoda’s arc from firecracker rookie to hardened points-scorer has been one of the paddock’s more rewarding stories. The radio edges softened. The racecraft sharpened. When the car underneath him allowed, the speed was never in question. The next step was always going to be the hardest — climbing in next to Verstappen is like being asked to scale K2 after a light jog — and that step can break good drivers. It doesn’t have to break careers.
“We have all experienced setbacks — sometimes hard setbacks,” Mekies added. “That’s a setback for him, but I am confident that he has a lot in him that will allow him to have another opportunity.”
So what does 2026 actually look like for Tsunoda? Plenty of simulator miles, integrated run plans, and a front‑row seat to development — the kind of work that doesn’t trend on social media but can keep a driver razor sharp. He’ll be in the room, up to speed, and within a phone call of a car. In this ecosystem, that matters.
For Red Bull, the pathway is clear. Hadjar’s promotion continues a conveyor belt that rarely slows, while Lindblad’s step into Racing Bulls keeps the pipeline fed. It’s a brutal meritocracy, and Tsunoda just felt the cold edge of it. But it’s also a system that can move just as quickly in the other direction.
In short: no farewell, no flounce — just a reset. If Tsunoda’s career to date has taught us anything, it’s that he doesn’t do quiet comebacks. And if Red Bull’s taught us anything, it’s that the second chance he’s been promised could arrive on a Monday and put him in a car by Friday.
You never know. That’s the point.
