- Tsunoda wants to be back in F1 as a full-timer.
- Thinks increased visibility in paddock is necessary to be considered.
- Tsunoda’s goal hasn’t just been F1 but also the restaurant business.
Yuki Tsunoda lost his Red Bull seat to Isack Hadjar and was demoted to being a reserve driver; however, his wish to return to the F1 grid hasn’t faded. While he did consider other racing series options, he hasn’t given up on F1 and thinks that showcasing visibility in the paddock could prove to be fruitful for getting hired again as a full-time driver.
In 2025’s mid-season, while most teams decided on who their two drivers would be for next year, Red Bull was still waiting and didn’t make their decision until the Qatar Grand Prix (the second-last race). After the race weekend, the team announced that they are letting go of Tsunoda, promoting Hadjar to the second seat, alongside Max Verstappen.
Hadjar’s Racing Bulls seat was then passed on to F2 racer, Arvid Lindblad. Red Bull’s decision to replace Tsunoda could possibly stem from performance issues in 2025.
Tsunoda wants to return to F1
Tsunoda started his F1 career in 2021 after being recruited by Honda-powered AlphaTauri. At the time, his teammate was Pierre Gasly. Their pairing existed till 2022. After Gasly left for the Alpine seat, Tsunoda was teamed up with rookie Nyck de Vries in the following season. In 2024, he and Daniel Ricciardo became teammates after the AT’s rebrand to Racing Bulls.
While Tsunoda was a part of Racing Bulls in the 2025 start, his good performance in the early season led to his promotion to Red Bull. However, by the end of the season, Red Bull seemed to move into a different direction as they gave the opportunity to new talent like Hadjar, who did well in his rookie year, to move into the big team.
In a conversation with F1, Tsunoda opened up that he wants to be back on the grid and believes it’s essential for him to increase his visibility not just in the RB garage but also in the paddock for teams to consider him for a seat. He said, “I’m not giving up on driving in F1. Rather than going to other series and racing… That’s also partly good, because you’ll be sharp, but at the same time, you don’t know what’s going on in F1 very much.”
Tsunoda’s career plans don’t include only F1
Tsunoda’s professional plans extend beyond the racing category as he once expressed his desire to open a restaurant. He’s a big foodie, and in 2024, he revealed that he plans to start a Japanese-based restaurant business, while keeping more details about it undisclosed, citing it as “confidential.”
He believes that F1 experience could contribute a lot to his entrepreneurship. How? Well, Tsunoda stated, “because in the F1 environment I travel to a lot of countries, I can use that experience of each country’s food and the good points from each country’s cuisine that I want to combine with Japanese food.”
He revealed that he’ll keep the Japanese food base but expand into other cuisines as well. He also plans to take the best elements of each cuisine and combine them to create fusion-style dishes. That’s his aim for his future restaurant business.
