Yuki Tsunoda breaks silence after Red Bull announces his fate for the 2026 F1 season

Red Bull had announced Yuki Tsunoda would not remain on the F1 grid come 2026, as Isack Hadjar has been promoted to the seat at Milton Keynes. The Japanese driver had remained silent until now and shared his reaction to the announcement over on his socials a day later.

Tsunoda had been a part of the Red Bull family since 2019 as the Austrian giant supported the young driver through his junior career. After a successful F2 season in 2020, he was promoted to Red Bull's B-team at AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls).

There, he matured as a driver and remained with the team until the start of the 2025 season, when he received the call-up to the senior team just after two race weekends. Though he showed glimpses of strong performance, his results remained subpar, leading the hierarchy to promote Isack Hadjar to the team for the 2026 season.

This came as a huge blow for Tsunoda as he was also not given the seat at Racing Bulls, as Arvid Lindblad also moves up from F2 to F1 in 2026. So, he would remain as the test and reserve driver for both Red Bull teams.

Subsequently, sharing his reaction to this announcement, Yuki Tsunoda wrote on X:

"I’m not finished yet. Finding out I won’t have a race seat in 2026 was incredibly tough, but I’m determined to work harder than ever with Red Bull as test and reserve driver to develop with the team, and prove I deserve a place on the grid. Life’s full of setbacks, and this is mine. It’s not going to deter me from being the best F1 driver I can be."

Yuki Tsunoda would enter his 114th F1 Grand Prix weekend in Abu Dhabi, which will be his final one for the time being.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies thanked Yuki Tsunoda for his time at Red Bull, racing for its F1 teams

Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda (L) and Max Verstappen (R) at the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Qatar race weekend - Source: Getty

After Pierre Gasly's departure from the Faenza-based squad, Yuki Tsunoda had emerged as the leader of the B-team. He had conclusively outpaced all of his teammates at Racing Bulls and had earned his promotion to Red Bull after years of remaining with the sister team.

With his full-time racing journey coming to an end for the time being, Red Bull thanked him for his continued efforts for the squad as Laurent Mekies said (via Red Bull):

"Through his five seasons so far in F1, Yuki has matured into a complete racer, good over a single lap on Saturday and capable of exceptional starts and excellent race craft on Sunday. Everyone in the sport would agree it is impossible not to like Yuki, his personality is infectious, and he has become a very special part of the Red Bull family. On behalf of everyone at Red Bull, I thank him for what he has contributed so far and we know he will provide invaluable support to the 2026 projects moving forwards."

Tsunoda has scored 33 points in the 2025 season so far, contributing to both Racing Bulls and Red Bull.

Edited by Geetansh Pasricha