{"id":351107,"date":"2025-12-16T06:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/351107\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T06:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:03:12","slug":"red-bull-boss-assesses-chance-of-yuki-tsunoda-f1-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/351107\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull boss assesses chance of Yuki Tsunoda F1 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> has been backed to make a swift return to the Formula 1 grid after his ousting from Red Bull by the team\u2019s boss, Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n

The Japanese driver was stripped of his drive with the Milton Keynes-based squad<\/a> after a difficult season, and will be replaced for 2026 by Isack Hadjar.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda began the year at Racing Bulls alongside the French rookie, but was rapidly moved to the full Red Bull team after Liam Lawson was fired after just two races.<\/p>\n

The Kiwi was sent back to the Faenza-based outfit, with Tsunoda given the remainder of the season alongside Max Verstappen in the often tricky RB21.<\/p>\n

But as the car improved and Verstappen reinvigorated his title defence, Tsunoda was still unable to fully match his four-time World Champion team-mate as the season wore on.<\/p>\n

After months of speculation, it was confirmed ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi that Tsunoda would indeed lose his drive and is now forced to settle for a test role instead.<\/p>\n

Mekies is a man who knows Tsunoda well, having been his boss at two different teams this year, the Frenchman having been Team Principal at Racing Bulls before himself being promoted after Christian Horner\u2019s exit in July.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the decision was confirmed, Mekies was quick to point out that the decision to replace Tsunoda was hard, but explained why Hadjar was given the drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a very difficult decision to take. The second seat at Red Bull is not an easy one,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a tough car to drive. And of course, we have tried everything we could to support Yuki.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some stage, we had to make the difficult call between where we were seeing that going for the following years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YukiYuki Tsunoda has been backed by Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies to return to F1<\/p>\n

Mekies hopes \u2018shoot for the stars\u2019 mentality will help Tsunoda achieve an F1 return<\/p>\n

Mekies is obviously close to Tsunoda and spoke openly about his hope that he will be afforded another opportunity to prove himself in F1 again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope, and I think, that Yuki will get another chance,\u201d\u00a0he added. \u201cHe will be the reserve driver with us next year. You never know what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been quite famous in making fairly swift driver decisions in the past. I recall one moment \u2013 at the end of the 2024 season, Yuki was driving very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very difficult for him to digest. Liam was getting the promotion in Red Bull Racing. He went into the winter thinking, \u2018Was he going to get the chance one day or not?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came back, and we set ourselves with the team at the time the objective to maximise everything \u2013 to shoot for the stars. Three races after, he was driving in that Red Bull team. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo you never know what the future holds. I\u2019m sure everyone in this room and beyond has experienced setbacks \u2013 sometimes hard setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a setback for him. But I am confident that he has a lot in him that will allow him to have another opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Helmut Marko makes damning Christian Horner claim amid narrow Red Bull F1 title loss<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda has been backed to make a swift return to the Formula 1 grid after his ousting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,38068,806,805,803,804,15196,85,5077],"class_list":{"0":"post-351107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-mekies","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-redbull","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351107","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=351107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}