{"id":113855,"date":"2025-09-02T19:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113855\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T19:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:18:13","slug":"f1-team-chief-admits-hes-powerless-to-stop-red-bull-replacing-yuki-tsunoda-with-his-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113855\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 team chief admits he\u2019s \u2018powerless\u2019 to stop Red Bull replacing Yuki Tsunoda with his driver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n

Red Bull<\/a> wasted no time admitting their mistake when Lawson<\/a> was demoted back to Racing Bulls<\/a> in March after just two rounds. Yet, while Tsunoda<\/a> initially stepped up from their sister squad and delivered, his form fell off a cliff with seven point-less rounds before the summer.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda ended the 25-year-old\u2019s drought with P9 in the Dutch Grand Prix<\/a> in the first race back. But the Japanese pilot profited from Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris retiring, plus Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s penalties, to creep into the points after qualifying P12.<\/p>\n

His latest failure to reach Q3 in the 2025 F1 season<\/a> also followed reports that Red Bull have confirmed internally that Tsunoda will leave<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\"RedPhoto by Andrea Diodato\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is also widely expected that Red Bull will promote Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar<\/a> to take over from Tsunoda in 2026. Jacques Villeneuve even feels Hadjar has already been told he\u2019s racing for Red Bull in 2026<\/a>, even before the 20-year-old\u2019s first podium with P3 at Zandvoort.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Who is Racing Bulls 2025 F1 driver Isack Hadjar? Everything you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Racing Bulls cannot stand in Red Bull\u2019s way if team principal Laurent Mekies and motorsport adviser Helmut Marko decide to promote Hadjar, as well. CEO Peter Bayer<\/a> has admitted that Racing Bulls are \u201cpowerless\u201d to keep the French-Algerian if Red Bull decide to promote him.<\/p>\n

Bayer explained to Blick<\/a>: \u201cA 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\u2019re powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yuki Tsunoda made an unacceptable and costly mistake that ruined his Dutch Grand Prix\"RedPhoto by Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Re-joining Racing Bulls is now seen as Tsunoda\u2019s most likely way of staying in F1 in 2026<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

The Dutch GP certainly did Tsunoda\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda\u2019s life outside F1 from height to parents<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were stuck with an incorrect mapping after the last pit stop,\u201d Red Bull team principal Mekies said about Tsunoda\u2019s race after the Dutch GP, via Motorsport-Total<\/a>. \u201cHe drove the final part of the race with a mapping that was really, really unfavourable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda looks certain to be on the way out of Red Bull after the 2025 F1 season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,1627,10114,806,805,803,804,53308,946,85,9806,5077],"class_list":["post-113855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-formula-1-driver-market","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-peter-bayer","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-visa-cash-app-racing-bulls","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}