Aston–Honda is the obvious Tsunoda safety net — but would a reserve year really suit him?
Yuki Tsunoda’s 2026 future is the latest tile in F1’s sliding puzzle. Out of contract beyond next season and currently auditioning in Red Bull colours alongside Max Verstappen, he’s the name everyone keeps looping back to when the conversation turns to Aston Martin’s Honda rebirth.
The logic is almost too neat. Honda becomes Aston Martin’s works power unit partner from 2026. Tsunoda has been Honda’s flag-bearer in F1 since day one. And with Felipe Drugovich heading to Formula E for next season, there’s a clear hole in the Aston structure for a high‑calibre reserve who knows Honda’s methodology inside out.
Aston’s line is predictable — driver plans for 2026 will be announced “in due course” — and it’s smart to take them at their word. The bigger story is how Tsunoda positions himself if Red Bull’s second seat is prised open for someone else. The most obvious threat is from Isack Hadjar, who’s been busy making himself impossible to ignore in his first year with Racing Bulls. If Red Bull chooses to promote the Frenchman for the 2026 rules reset, Tsunoda will need a soft landing that keeps him near the front. On paper, Aston–Honda is tailor‑made.
There are two schools of thought in the paddock on whether that makes sense for Yuki. One says: park the ego, take the reserve deal for a year, integrate with Honda’s new factory programme, and put yourself at the front of the queue when the music stops again in 2027. A modern reserve is more than a test driver. It’s a seat at the table for simulator development, correlation work, tyre model build‑up and endless 2026 programme prep. With a brand-new PU and aero regs incoming, that work actually matters.
The other view is harsher: five seasons into F1, Tsunoda needs to lock down a race seat or risk being typecast. He’s tidied up the rough edges that defined his rookie years and delivered his best result in Red Bull colours around Baku this season, but the debate over his ultimate ceiling hasn’t gone away. When Liam Lawson pops up and out‑paces you on a given Saturday, people notice. When the Red Bull conveyor belt spits out another prodigy, the questions get louder.
That said, context is everything. Red Bull’s second car is a political cauldron and a performance yardstick rolled into one. It’s eaten bigger reputations than Tsunoda’s. If he’s ultimately shuffled aside there, it won’t be a unique story. What will matter is whether he’s positioned to capitalise when the Aston–Honda project finds its stride.
On the Aston side, the picture is layered. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll remain the present tense, and Alonso hasn’t exactly sounded like a man eyeing the golf course. But 2026 is a reset for everyone, and Aston has already bet the farm on being ready for it: new factory, expanded workforce, works Honda power. If there’s a place where a driver can spend a year wiring themselves into a programme — building trust with engineers, shaping simulator tools, learning a new PU’s quirks — it’s Silverstone.
And yes, there’s a pragmatic streak to this too. If one of the green cars does become available for 2027, who do you want waiting in the wings? A driver Honda knows, who’s been living and breathing the 2026 architecture, or a cold external hire? In that light, Tsunoda as Aston’s reserve looks less like a holding pattern and more like a well-lit on-ramp.
The risk for Yuki is momentum. F1 has a short memory. A year out can look like a lifetime if you’re not front and centre on Sundays. The counter is that a reserve with a purpose — and a works manufacturer behind him — is very different to vanishing off the grid. It’s the difference between being parked and being primed.
None of this rules out the possibility that Red Bull sticks with Tsunoda. He’s shown flashes of the edge that made Honda bet on him in the first place, the radio spikes are mostly a thing of the past, and his race craft has matured. If the next run of races tilts his way, the conversation shifts again. But if Hadjar’s rise proves irresistible and the second Red Bull seat changes hands for 2026, the Aston–Honda door isn’t just ajar — it’s practically inviting him in.
So, is he “too good to be a reserve”? Depends on the reserve job. If it’s a year of treading water, probably. If it’s a year embedded at the heart of a brand-new factory programme that could well be punching at the front under new regs, that’s a different proposition entirely.
One thing’s certain: Honda will want a say in where their standard‑bearer lands. And right now, the safest place for Yuki Tsunoda to keep his F1 future on the boil might be the garage with a big red H on the wall — even if the race suit is green for a while.
