In finishing P11 at Zandvoort he might not have made the points, but nevertheless Yuki Tsunoda was able to use his one-off appearance with Racing Bulls to put himself back on the radar of the Formula 1 pitlane.<\/p>\n
After his somewhat disastrous season with Red Bull<\/a> in 2025 it was hard to imagine him ever finding a way back to a race seat.<\/p>\n A solid Dutch Grand Prix weekend in an unfamiliar VCARB 03 served as a calling card though, reminding everyone that Tsunoda<\/a> is one of the most experienced and best qualified drivers currently sitting on the sidelines.<\/p>\n And while it\u2019s hard to see a way forward in the Red Bull camp given the talent there \u2013 with F2 championship leader Nikola Tsolov waiting in the wings \u2013 his prospects of finding something elsewhere have to be better than they were prior to last weekend.<\/p>\n Although he hadn\u2019t raced since Abu Dhabi last December, Tsunoda has not been idle. Testing of Previous Car (TPC) runs in an older Red Bull chassis kept him sharp, and he\u2019s spent a lot of time driving the current RB22 in the Milton Keynes simulator, which gave him a good insight into how to use the 2026 Ford power unit.<\/p>\n The last minute nature of the Zandvoort decision meant that he was only able to try Racing Bulls<\/a>‘ VCARB 03 in the sim on the Wednesday before the race, but that did at least give him a head start.<\/p>\n After the single hour of FP1, it was straight into Sprint Qualifying. He was P13 in SQ1 and then P12 in SQ2, just behind Liam Lawson<\/a> \u2013 the man he was subbing for.<\/p>\n The key parameter was the 0.360s delta to team mate Arvid Lindblad<\/a> \u2013 not bad given Tsunoda\u2019s unfamiliarity with the car, but on the other hand this was also the Briton\u2019s first day of running at the track.<\/p>\n In the Sprint, Tsunoda lost a place to Franco Colapinto<\/a> and finished P13, gaining a lot of useful knowledge along the way \u2013 he was also relieved that a first corner tap on Lindblad didn\u2019t hinder either Racing Bulls driver.<\/p>\n He was more confident for Qualifying, taking P8 in Q1 and P12 once again in Q2. His improved form was reflected by a smaller 0.102s gap to his team mate in that session.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I’m super happy,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly, I enjoyed so much this Qualifying. Yesterday’s [Sprint] Qualifying was okay, but didn’t know where the limit was still, it was still a fresh car.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this was a proper Qualifying, and I was able to trust more the car and throw the car into the corners. It’s still like a fourth session, and I know where I can improve much more. But honestly, I miss this kind of feeling, chasing the last few milliseconds, last few tenths \u2013 and I’m super enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsunoda confirmed after Qualifying for the Grand Prix that Saturday’s Sprint had been a valuable training exercise: \u201cIt was very, very useful, certainly for the race, it was good that I had that before the race start. And every procedure, every deploy management is a lot different. So I think it was good, important for the race, and those 24 laps, every single lap, I able to able to learn, and I think I was able to prove that in this Qualifying.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single session I am coming closer and closer. I wish I had one more session, one more Round. But still, one more session to go, which is the race, and close to the points. So I’m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n For Racing Bulls, the main task in Zandvoort was to mitigate any points loss to closest rivals Alpine<\/a>. Both teams lost out when Lindblad and Colapinto picked up drive-through penalties for passing under yellows during the Verstappen\/Bortoleto chaos in the opening lap \u2013 and their early unplanned pit visits after the restart put them out of the hunt for points.<\/p>\n