Yuki Tsunoda's Future in Formula 1: A Reserve Role at Red Bull
Yuki Tsunoda’s Formula 1 future may be parked on the sidelines for now, but inside Red Bull there is no sense that his story should end there.
Demoted from a race seat after a bruising 2025 campaign, Tsunoda has been pushed into the shadows as reserve and simulator driver. Thirty points from 22 grands prix, 17th in the championship, looked brutally stark alongside Max Verstappen’s run to second overall. In a team that measures everything against its benchmark Dutchman, the numbers told their own tale.
Red Bull acted. Isack Hadjar, fresh from an eye‑catching rookie year with sister squad Racing Bulls capped by a podium at Zandvoort, stepped up. Tsunoda stepped aside.
Yet inside the Milton Keynes operation, respect for the Japanese driver has not evaporated with his race seat.
“Yuki is doing a great job with us, not only as a reserve driver, but also as a simulator driver,” team principal Laurent Mekies said on the Beyond the Grid podcast, underlining the value of a driver who knows the machinery inside out after four seasons at Racing Bulls and a year at Red Bull Racing. “It's great to have somebody that has such deep, recent experience of the car that can help us behind the scenes.”
For a driver, though, the glow of the simulator can never replace the heat of the grid.
“Of course, we wish for him that there is an opportunity that comes soon because racing drivers are meant to race. And that's what we wish for Yuki,” Mekies added. He didn’t dress it up: “It's fair to say that Yuki has shown significant speed in the past and we wish for him that another opportunity comes along the way.”
The admission came with another, more uncomfortable truth. Red Bull know they have not consistently nailed their second car in recent years.
“We are conscious that we haven't been as strong as we would have liked in the past in terms of the second-car performance at Red Bull Racing,” Mekies said. The team, he stressed, is “taking the learnings” and trying to improve “day after day.”
Right now, that second car belongs to Hadjar – and the 19-year-old is wasting no time making it feel like his own.
Hadjar’s start has been quietly emphatic. Third on the grid on debut in Melbourne. Points on the board in China. A headline-grabbing moment at Suzuka when he outqualified Verstappen – something Tsunoda never managed in equal machinery. All in a troublesome RB22 that has hardly been a friendly first F1 car.
“Isack is in a great place right now,” Mekies said before the Japanese Grand Prix. “He has done, I think, everything he could have done to maximise his integration with the team.”
The details tell the story. A move to London in early January. Days spent at the factory. Endless simulator sessions. Hadjar has thrown himself into the job with the obsession of someone who knows this chance might not come twice.
“He moved to London in the early days of January. He's at the factory every other day. He spends as much time as he can in the simulator, trying to understand all the engineering parts around the car. He has been as keen as you can be,” Mekies explained.
The commitment borders on relentless. Between the two Bahrain tests, Hadjar even flew back to the UK to log more time in the simulator before returning to the desert.
“So, credit to him for the level of commitment,” Mekies said. Then he offered a telling line about the Frenchman’s mindset: “But the truth is, he's not making an effort, that’s what he loves to do. He has been living, dreaming about that moment for a long time, and for him, it's his dream.”
The results are already visible. “I think the first two races show that it's already showing the right results. He has been able to show the right speed straight away. I'm sure he will remember his first qualifying with us with a P3 in Melbourne, and it's a long season that will be up and down.”
Red Bull believe there is more to come. “We believe drivers make steps and we expect steps from Isack this year and we think he has all the right talents and all the right approach to be able to make these steps.”
For Tsunoda, that belief in Hadjar closes one obvious door. Red Bull’s second seat, for now and likely beyond, is not where his “another opportunity” lies.
But Mekies’ words make one thing clear: inside the paddock, Tsunoda is not being written off as a failed experiment. He is viewed as quick, experienced and still worthy of a full-time chance.
The question is no longer whether he deserves it. It’s which team will be brave enough to hand it to him.
