{"id":190338,"date":"2026-02-23T19:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190338\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:17:23","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-escapes-as-red-bull-f1-car-bursts-into-flames-during-san-francisco-demo-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190338\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda escapes as Red Bull F1 car bursts into flames during San Francisco demo run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> returned to the seat of a Formula 1 car over the weekend for a demonstration run, but it took a turn for the worse when the car burst into flames.<\/p>\n

The Japanese driver took part in a show run in San Francisco alongside\u00a0former F1 and rallycross driver Scott Speed, Ford off-road racer Mitch Guthrie and freestyle motocross rider Aaron Colton.<\/p>\n

At the wheel of\u00a0Red Bull’s double-title-winning 2011 RB7, Tsunoda entertained the crowd with doughnuts on Marina Boulevard before the rear of the car erupted into flames. Fans shouted at the 25-year-old to get out of the car, which he did safely before marshals worked to put out the fire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you don\u2019t like that you were demoted to reserve driver and torch the car,” one fan joked on X, while another added: “Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull turned San Francisco into a real fire show. Smoke, flames and a crowd that came for the demo but got a pyrotechnic surprise instead. Who said Formula 1 wasn’t extreme enough?”<\/p>\n

Tsunoda was moved into a test and reserve driver role for 2026 after losing his full-time Red Bull seat to Isack Hadjar<\/a> at the end of 2025. “Obviously, I\u2019m disappointed, and p***ed off,” Tsunoda told the media in Abu Dhabi last year. “How I was told was right after the race [in Qatar], from Helmut, privately, that I\u2019m not racing next year. Surprisingly, I\u2019m OK. Not OK, like, I\u2019m surviving OK. The morning after, I ordered breakfast as usual, the same food.<\/p>\n

“Probably, I\u2019m not recognising enough it will be the last race for this year, for next year. Maybe I\u2019ll feel more after Abu Dhabi. But that\u2019s how it went and how I feel now.”<\/p>\n

The 2026 F1 season will begin with the Australian Grand Prix from 6-8 March at Albert Park in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda returned to the seat of a Formula 1 car over the weekend for a demonstration run,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[83339,89331,43696,83336,101,103,102,104,106,105,83335,83337,89330],"class_list":["post-190338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bahrain-international-circuit","tag-bahrain-pre-season-2","tag-formula-1","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-trendingteam","tag-yuki-tsunoda","tag-yuki-tsunoda-escapes-as-red-bull-f1-car-bursts-into-flames-during-san-francisco-demo-run"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}