Yuki Tsunoda will make a return to the cockpit of a Formula 1 car for a demonstration event in San Francisco.
The Red Bull test and reserve driver will join former F1 and rallycross driver Scott Speed, Ford off-road racer Mitch Guthrie and freestyle motocross rider Aaron Colton. Tsunoda will take the driver’s seat of Red Bull’s double-title-winning 2011 RB7.
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“I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of an F1 car, and to do that in [the] RB7 in San Francisco will be amazing,” Tsunoda said. “I’m really looking forward to getting out there, doing some donuts and making some real F1 noise in front of the crowds.”
The Japanese driver lost his full-time F1 seat at the end of 2025. 2026 is Tsunoda’s sixth year in the Red Bull family. Having made his debut with AlphaTauri (now known as Racing Bulls) in 2021, he remained with the Red Bull sister team until he replaced Liam Lawson in the then Christian Horner-led team ahead of the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix.
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Tsunoda had until the end of the 2025 season to prove he was worth a contract extension. However, Red Bull opted to move the 25-year-old to a test and reserve driver role and promote Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar to the seat alongside four-time champion Max Verstappen.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, who replaced Horner in July 2025, explained the decision to make the “difficult call”.
“It has been a very difficult decision to take. The second seat at Red Bull is not an easy one. We have a tough car to drive. And of course, we have tried everything we could to support Yuki.
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“At some stage, we had to make the difficult call between where we were seeing that going for the following years.”
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
He added: “I hope, and I think, that Yuki will get another chance. He will be the reserve driver with us next year. You never know what’s going to happen. We have been quite famous in making fairly swift driver decisions in the past. I recall one moment — at the end of the 2024 season, Yuki was driving very well.
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“It was very difficult for him to digest. Liam was getting the promotion in Red Bull Racing. He went into the winter thinking, was he going to get the chance one day or not?
“He came back, and we set ourselves with the team at the time the objective to maximise everything — to shoot for the stars. Three races after, he was driving in that Red Bull team. So you never know what the future holds. I’m sure everyone in this room and beyond has experienced setbacks — sometimes hard setbacks.
“That’s a setback for him. But I am confident that he has a lot in him that will allow him to have another opportunity.”
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