Yuki Tsunoda looks certain to be on the way out of Red Bull after the 2025 F1 season, having so far failed to vindicate his promotion since trading drives with Liam Lawson.
Red Bull wasted no time admitting their mistake when Lawson was demoted back to Racing Bulls in March after just two rounds. Yet, while Tsunoda initially stepped up from their sister squad and delivered, his form fell off a cliff with seven point-less rounds before the summer.
Tsunoda ended the 25-year-old’s drought with P9 in the Dutch Grand Prix in the first race back. But the Japanese pilot profited from Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris retiring, plus Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s penalties, to creep into the points after qualifying P12.
His latest failure to reach Q3 in the 2025 F1 season also followed reports that Red Bull have confirmed internally that Tsunoda will leave the team at the end of this year. The Kanagawa native is out of contract, as Red Bull did not extend his deal upon trading seats with Lawson.
Photo by Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images
It is also widely expected that Red Bull will promote Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar to take over from Tsunoda in 2026. Jacques Villeneuve even feels Hadjar has already been told he’s racing for Red Bull in 2026, even before the 20-year-old’s first podium with P3 at Zandvoort.
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TEAMDRIVER 1DRIVER 2AlpinePierre GaslyN/AAston MartinFernando AlonsoLance StrollAudiGabriel BortoletoNico HulkenbergCadillacValtteri BottasSergio PerezFerrariCharles LeclercLewis HamiltonHaasEsteban OconOliver BearmanMcLarenLando NorrisOscar PiastriMercedesN/AN/ARacing BullsN/AN/ARed Bull RacingMax VerstappenN/AWilliamsAlex AlbonCarlos Sainz2026 confirmed F1 drivers
Racing Bulls cannot stand in Red Bull’s way if team principal Laurent Mekies and motorsport adviser Helmut Marko decide to promote Hadjar, as well. CEO Peter Bayer has admitted that Racing Bulls are “powerless” to keep the French-Algerian if Red Bull decide to promote him.
Bayer explained to Blick: “A great day for the team, who have finally been rewarded. I told Blick months ago that we would have to handcuff Hadjar to keep him. If Red Bull want him, we’re powerless.”
Yuki Tsunoda made an unacceptable and costly mistake that ruined his Dutch Grand Prix
Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images
Re-joining Racing Bulls is now seen as Tsunoda’s most likely way of staying in F1 in 2026. Yet Red Bull are still to decide if the Japanese gem will return to Faenza or if Lawson will be kept on next to Arvid Lindblad, with the F2 driver now in line to graduate to F1 with Racing Bulls.
The Dutch GP certainly did Tsunoda’s chances of staying at Red Bull no help, despite taking his first points since the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola in May thanks to the misfortune of his rivals, with Hadjar taking his debut F1 podium after setting a personal-best qualifying of P4.
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YEARRED BULLRACING BULLS2019Verstappen & Gasly/AlbonAlbon/Gasly & Kvyat2020Verstappen & AlbonGasly & Kvyat2021Verstappen & PerezGasly & Tsunoda2022Verstappen & PerezGasly & Tsunoda2023Verstappen & PerezTsunoda & De Vries/Ricciardo/Lawson2024Verstappen & PerezTsunoda & Ricciardo/Lawson2025Verstappen & Lawson/TsunodaTsunoda/Lawson & HadjarRed Bull and Racing Bulls F1 driver line-ups since 2019
Tsunoda set his personal-best qualifying result so far in 2025 for Racing Bulls at the season-opening Australian GP with P5. But, above only qualifying P12 for the Dutch GP in his 13th race for Red Bull, Tsunoda cost himself a stronger finish by picking the wrong engine mode.
“We were stuck with an incorrect mapping after the last pit stop,” Red Bull team principal Mekies said about Tsunoda’s race after the Dutch GP, via Motorsport-Total. “He drove the final part of the race with a mapping that was really, really unfavourable.”
Tsunoda changed his engine mode to the launch setting used for pit stops when he stopped for the final time on Lap 53 of 72. But the Japanese racer did not return to the normal mode before leaving the pit lane, and drivers cannot change their engine mode out on the circuit.