Yuki Tsunoda says his only regret about moving to Red Bull this season is missing out on a \u201cgood f**king car\u201d at Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n
The Japanese driver was behind the wheel of a Racing Bulls car for the first two Grands Prix of the F1 2025 season, before getting called up to replace the struggling Liam Lawson at the senior team.<\/p>\n
Yuki Tsunoda: Racing Bulls was a pretty good f**king car<\/p>\n
Lawson drove the first two races of the year with Red Bull, before being dropped back into the sister Racing Bulls squad.<\/p>\n
This was achieved by calling Tsunoda up\u00a0from the Japanese Grand Prix onward, with the expectations of the then-Red Bull management being that he would get closer to Max Verstappen and help the team\u2019s bid for the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n
However, Tsunoda\u2019s campaign turned out to be disappointing, with no particular highlights to choose from, although it is evident he has made some progress in understanding the tricky RB21 through the year.<\/p>\n
His best result has been a sixth place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Early on in his tenure, a heavy crash in qualifying at Imola dented his confidence and put him on the back foot in terms of receiving upgraded parts, which also didn\u2019t help his case.<\/p>\n
F1 contracts: Made to be broken?<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49 F1 2026 driver line-up: Lewis Hamilton and other drivers already confirmed for 2026<\/a> Ultimately, Red Bull has felt Tsunoda\u2019s pace and development rate has been insufficient, leading it to replace him with Isack Hadjar for the first year of the new regulation cycle.<\/p>\n Tsunoda has not been returned to a seat at Racing Bulls, but has been kept within the Red Bull family as a reserve driver.<\/p>\n Looking back on the long-awaited promotion that he spent the previous four years pursuing, Tsunoda said he doesn\u2019t regret making the move.<\/p>\n But there is one element to his departure where he does feel he\u2019s missed out: leaving behind what he now sees as a strong car at Racing Bulls, for a more challenging one at Red Bull.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably, I was saying that I didn\u2019t have any regrets, but I mean the only regret I have is missing out on that pretty good f**king car\u2026 the VCARB,\u201d Tsunoda explained to media, including PlanetF1.com, ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is like throwing away your kids, your baby, because this is the car that I developed with the team throughout the years, since we had these regulations. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s my DNA inside that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsunoda had to watch on as both Hadjar and Lawson outscored him with their individual points tallies this year, with the Japanese driver amassing 33 points in total in 2025 \u2013 30 of which were with the Red Bull.<\/p>\n Hadjar is on 51 points, with Lawson on 38, all of which were in the Racing Bulls car, despite his two races in the Red Bull.<\/p>\n \u201cMissing out on that and finishing out without finally being able to get to the level that we wanted is something that I miss,\u201d Tsunoda said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, at the same time, yeah, I don\u2019t regret that decision [to join Red Bull], I would say, still now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Racing Bulls car appeared a more compliant beast for all of its drivers this year, with Tsunoda lining up in fifth in Australia in the VCARB02.<\/p>\n While the RB21 has emerged as a championship-capable car in Verstappen\u2019s hands, the relative performance of the Racing Bulls led to the question of whether the Faenza team had actually delivered a more competitive car.<\/p>\n The answer, according to Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer, lay in the confidence a driver can take from a stable platform.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, with these ground effect cars, driveability is performance,\u201d he told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause they are monsters where, if you make one tiny mistake and you lose downforce, you go into a corner and you have understeer that then goes into oversteer.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have days where you think everything\u2019s all right, and you go out. Then, instead of sunshine, you have shadow, you\u2019re three tenths down.<\/p>\n \u201cNext session, you have the sun, you\u2019re half a second up.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you go to a track that has a different asphalt, and you\u2019re nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsunoda\u2019s season began to come undone at Imola, with a hefty crash that resulted in him falling out of step on upgraded components, as well as denting his confidence.<\/p>\n \u201cImola, for sure, is something that I look back on that frustrates me a lot still,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crash I had was very unnecessary and also I couldn\u2019t avoid. For sure, that made myself step back in terms of parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2025 grid? <\/a><\/p>\n