{"id":377053,"date":"2025-12-29T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377053\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T00:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:08:11","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-heard-rumour-that-couldve-altered-red-bull-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377053\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda heard rumour that could&#8217;ve altered Red Bull fate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/tag\/tsunoda\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> has revealed that he was \u201csurprised\u201d by Red Bull\u2019s decision to demote him to a reserve driver role in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/series\/single-seater\/formula-1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> for 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese driver will watch from the sidelines from the 2026 season, after Red Bull promoted his former team-mate, Isack Hadjar. <\/p>\n<p>Whilst Tsunoda had been prepared towards the end of the campaign for this outcome, he was left stunned when it was finally confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/racing\/2025\/qatar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Qatar Grand Prix<\/a>, Tsunoda was informed he would be in a reserve driver role, contrary to what the 25-year-old had heard elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was told after the race in Qatar, but honestly, it didn\u2019t feel real at first,\u201d Tsunoda explained to DAZN Japan.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cI had prepared myself for that possibility, but the news was different from what I\u2019d heard before, so it took me by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI heard that the decision might have been changed just before my briefing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere must be a lot of reasons behind it. But when they told me I don\u2019t have a permanent seat next year, it wasn\u2019t like the world collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Yuki-Tsunoda-F1-Qatar-GP-1024x576.webp.webp\" alt=\"Yuki Tsunoda will not be on the 2026 grid\" class=\"wp-image-231776\"  \/>Yuki Tsunoda will spend 2026 on the sidelines<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda remains focused on his future<\/p>\n<p>Despite the end of a six-year stint in F1, Tsunoda didn\u2019t let the news ruin his outlook on the future. <\/p>\n<p>The Red Bull reserve highlighted that immediately after coming to terms with the news, his focus remained on his future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had Abu Dhabi coming up, so I immediately focused on the next race,\u201d he expanded.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunoda also revealed that stepping away from a full-time F1 seat in 2026 does not mean the end of his motorsport journey for the year. <\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old hinted at the possibility of a season in a different series next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a chance that it won\u2019t just be simulator and backup duties next year,\u201d Tsunoda revealed. \u201cI\u2019ve already heard a few possible scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But for now, Tsunoda is focused on resting from an emotional rollercoaster in 2025 as he hopes to prepare for a different-looking season next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor now, I\u2019ll rest and then start training for next season,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE \u2013<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsportweek.com\/2025\/12\/28\/max-verstappen-opens-up-on-talks-with-mercedes-over-f1-move\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Max Verstappen opens up on Mercedes talks over F1 move<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda has revealed that he was \u201csurprised\u201d by Red Bull\u2019s decision to demote him to a reserve&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,806,805,803,804,15196,85,5077],"class_list":{"0":"post-377053","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-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-redbull","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377053","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=377053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}