Yuki Tsunoda is prepared for the hardest job in motorsports. Or, at the least, he believes he’s. At 24, with 4 seasons in Method 1 plus a robust begin to 2025 below his belt, he’s better-prepared for this chance than the person he changed, former teammate Liam Lawson, and backs himself to thrive even if partnering Max Verstappen at Crimson Bull Racing is regarded by most as profession poison.
Tsunoda has nothing to lose. This was destined to be his final yr within the Racing Bulls fold, with Crimson Bull staff principal Christian Horner saying final December that after 5 years in what he known as the “assist staff,” there comes some extent the place “you’ve both obtained to allow them to go at that time or have a look at one thing totally different.” Tsunoda has proved himself worthy of a seat on the F1 grid, however alternatives are restricted for ’26 if Crimson Bull’s B-team doesn’t retain him. The bounce to Crimson Bull presents a possibility to alter the course of his profession, and maybe even set up himself in a front-running staff for the long run.
It’s an enormous ask, provided that not solely is he being pitched right into a seat regarded by most because the hardest in F1 but in addition doing so with no prior expertise of the automobile, two races right into a season, and for his house grand prix. The devotion of the house crowd and the will of circuit proprietor Honda for him to thrive means the stress shall be intense, and the way Tsunoda offers with that might set him up for achievement or failure at Crimson Bull. He’ll get greater than the ludicrous two weekends afforded to Lawson, however the die will doubtless be forged someway at Suzuka. Crimson Bull will quickly flip its consideration to figuring out a substitute for ’26 if Tsunoda doesn’t persuade – and persuade rapidly.
This can be a fascinating problem contemplating sources inside Crimson Bull have lengthy made it clear that query marks over Tsunoda’s mentality, greater than his driving capability, led to him repeatedly being handed over for promotion. This all began when Tsunoda first examined for what was then known as AlphaTauri within the post-season Abu Dhabi check in 2020 and the staff was astonished by how vocal and emotional his communications have been over the radio. It’s one thing Tsunoda has, by his personal admission, needed to work on.
Nonetheless, the notion has change into more and more anachronistic as Tsunoda has improved what he calls his “emotional management” considerably. The final time there was a notable downside was within the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2024, when staff orders pissed off him late on and he made an announcement with an odd lunge and lockup previous Daniel Ricciardo on the slowdown lap. Since then, Tsunoda has been in a greater place, apart from utilizing an ableist slur throughout Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, for which he provided “large apologies,” in addition to paying a considerable tremendous. However unacceptable language apart, too typically reputable pushbacks to staff directions are interpreted as problematic once they shouldn’t be. The newest instance was within the Chinese language Grand Prix, when he was proper to demand he work the entrance finish tougher and didn’t settle for the pit wall telling him to not. Shortly afterwards, his reasoning was understood and the staff backed the choice. Due to this fact, the thought of a driver who isn’t working together with his staff is an outdated one.
Tsunoda was comparatively undercooked when he first arrived in F1 with AlphaTauri in 2021 (above) however has change into way more well-rounded within the years since. Lars Baron/Getty Pictures
F1 has been a steep studying curve for Tsunoda. When he arrived in 2021, ending ninth on debut in Bahrain, he had a single season in every of European F3 and F2 below his belt and was nonetheless very a lot a piece in progress. He confessed to underestimating how powerful the step as much as F1 can be, and his first season was a chastening expertise with too many errors. However he regularly realized, to the purpose the place he was capable of change into the staff’s spearhead as soon as Pierre Gasly left for Alpine on the finish of 2022. He’s now a much more reliable driver, and any patchiness in his outcomes is extra all the way down to his staff’s inconsistency than his personal shortcomings.
The primary two weekends of this yr have illustrated that. In Australia, he ran within the high six till the rain returned on lap 44. The staff flip-flopped on technique, leaving him out for too lengthy whereas different groups known as their automobiles in, turning a robust end result right into a pointless afternoon. The same factor occurred within the Chinese language Grand Prix, the place Racing Bulls caught with a two-stop technique as others tailored to 1. Solely his sturdy run to sixth within the Shanghai Dash rewarded him with factors in a season the place he has been a standout performer. The query now’s whether or not he can translate his very good type at Racing Bulls into Crimson Bull Racing driving a sooner, however a lot trickier, automobile.
To make his promotion work, Tsunoda should at the least partially replicate Verstappen’s ability for extracting the potential from a troublesome automobile. The Crimson Bull RB21 has loads of downforce and grip; the difficulty is accessing its potential persistently as a result of its stability limitations. Success or failure in doing so makes the distinction between it being a podium menace and being prone to elimination in Q1. Verstappen’s extraordinary capability is to drive the automobile in a approach that minimizes the constraints and makes probably the most of that potential.
In qualifying particularly, Verstappen’s otherworldly capability to control the automobile on the brakes and turn-in is what unlocks its efficiency. The RB21 is susceptible to each understeer and rear-end snaps, however Verstappen can load the entrance axle at turn-in to offer it the entrance finish grip it wants with out the rear stepping out of line. Doing so requires exceptional sensitivity, precision, adaptability and the capability to react near-instantaneously to the suggestions from the automobile. It’s the F1 equal of strolling the tightrope. Against this, Lawson has fallen repeatedly and subsequently driving to a a lot decrease ceiling – therefore his references to the problem of discovering “the candy spot” with this automobile.
This isn’t merely the issue of a automobile developed for Verstappen, who thrives with a robust entrance finish and may management the ensuing rear-end instability most discover too responsive. Whereas such dynamics have the potential for the best efficiency ceiling, this requires astonishing expertise to regulate. But with the RB21, Verstappen faces a fair harder problem with a automobile he says “remains to be not the place I would like it to be.” His driving is a fragile type of bullying that’s past most.
So can Tsunoda do what Verstappen does? It’s unlikely, given Verstappen is, at 27, already established as one of many all-time greats and few drivers within the historical past of grand prix racing have his capability. The extra pertinent query is whether or not Tsunoda can approximate the Verstappen approach sufficient to do the job Crimson Bull wants. That’s often framed by the staff as being about three-tenths off and banking common factors – though as a racing driver with unshakable confidence, Tsunoda himself will probably again himself to do excess of that.
There’s a reference level, which is the post-season Abu Dhabi check final yr. Tsunoda logged 127 laps within the 2024 Crimson Bull, which was much less a possibility provided by Crimson Bull and extra one facilitated by energy unit provider Honda, which has backed Tsunoda since his early days in single-seaters. There, Tsunoda claimed to really feel comfy within the automobile and capable of push it to the restrict.
Verstappen’s driving fashion doesn’t work for a lot of different drivers, however Tsunoda might want to undertake parts of it to have a shot at reaching the RB21’s potential. Clive Mason/Getty Pictures
“I feel so — I didn’t actually battle a lot to adapt,” mentioned Tsunoda. “I didn’t have many soiled laps. On the lengthy runs, I’ve been capable of run persistently and right away felt the constraints of the automobile, which should you don’t believe within the automobile, you may’t really feel any limitations.”
Though Tsunoda confirmed what he may do, the die had already been forged and Crimson Bull’s choice was made – Lawson was going to switch Sergio Perez, topic to the payoff being finalized with the Mexican. The willingness to make the swap with Lawson so early within the season confirms that Tsunoda did an excellent job in Abu Dhabi.
Tsunoda is certainly higher certified for the problem than he would have been a few years in the past and is promoted to Crimson Bull Racing with the type of expertise two of his predecessors, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly, had. Tsunoda is, by inclination, a late braker. After I requested him about that in November 2023, that is how he described his fashion:
“Stronger and quick,” mentioned Tsunoda. “The preliminary half is stronger. I’ve by no means seen a driver the place the preliminary half is stronger than me. The releasing half, the later half, he [teammate Ricciardo] is nice at. I can study one thing from that as a driver.”
This was a major part of Tsunoda’s improvement, one which broadened his window. Whereas his authentic F1 teammate, Gasly, can also be by inclination a late braker, one who thrives attacking the nook supplied that the rear finish is predictable sufficient to offer him confidence, Ricciardo confirmed Tsunoda one other approach. That’s expanded Tsunoda’s toolkit as a driver and, critically, given him a deeper understanding of the worth of manipulating the automobile’s stability utilizing the brakes. To do what Verstappen does, braking late isn’t an possibility because it simply means struggling to get the automobile turned. Then you’re restricted on traction whenever you attempt to feed the ability in because of the additional lock required to get the automobile by the remainder of the nook. Tsunoda at the least has a grounding in the right way to attempt to obtain this.
The stress is on, however that is probably life-changing alternative for Tsunoda, who can rework himself from useful midfielder to frontrunner. By way of expertise, the timing is true even when it could have been higher to offer him a winter and pre-season to organize, however that is the chance he craves to show he can do what Gasly, Albon, Perez and Lawson did not do earlier than him.
If Tsunoda delivers, and that doesn’t imply matching Verstappen however merely being a helpful quantity two for Crimson Bull, then this could possibly be a career-making alternative. If not, it will likely be a career-breaking one, however at the least he’ll have had the belated probability to point out what he can do within the least hospitable seat in F1.
