Yuki Tsunoda driver profile: Red Bull’s reserve who keeps racing
Yuki Tsunoda began 2026 without a race seat and has driven a Formula 1 car in anger anyway. That is the short version of a career that has been unusually eventful for a driver most people would describe as steady.
Yuki Tsunoda: Fast Facts
- Full name: Yuki Tsunoda
- Date of birth: 11 May 2000
- Born in: Sagamihara, Japan
- Nationality: Japanese
- Backed by: Honda and the Red Bull junior programme
- F1 debut: 2021, AlphaTauri
- Previous teams: AlphaTauri, Racing Bulls, Red Bull Racing
- 2026 role: Red Bull test and reserve driver; stood in at Racing Bulls for three races after the summer break
The Honda driver Red Bull inherited
Tsunoda came into the Red Bull system through Honda, which matters more than it sounds. His progress in Europe was funded and steered by a manufacturer with its own reasons for wanting a Japanese driver in Formula 1, and that relationship has shaped every stage of his career since.
He arrived at AlphaTauri in 2021 with a reputation for raw speed and not much else, and spent four seasons steadily removing the “and not much else” part. By the end of that run he was a genuinely reliable midfield operator, quick on Saturday and no longer throwing away Sundays.
That earned him the promotion he had wanted for years: a seat at Red Bull in 2025, when the senior team moved Liam Lawson out early in the season.
The seat that nobody keeps
The second Red Bull seat has now consumed a series of drivers, and Tsunoda did not solve it either.
For 2026 the team put Isack Hadjar alongside Max Verstappen and moved Tsunoda into a test and reserve role. On paper that is a demotion. In practice it has not meant sitting still.
When Hadjar injured his wrist in a boxing session during the summer break and was ruled out of the Dutch Grand Prix, the whole chain moved. Lawson went up to Red Bull, and Tsunoda stepped into the Racing Bulls car at Zandvoort. Hadjar then missed the Italian Grand Prix as well, so Tsunoda kept the seat at Monza. He stayed in the car for Madrid as well, three races in all, and scored a point at Monza.
That run ended at Baku. Red Bull said on 23 September that Hadjar had made a successful recovery and would return at the Baku City Circuit, so Lawson went back to Racing Bulls and Tsunoda returned to test and reserve duty. Racing Bulls thanked him for “stepping in over the past three races, giving everything for the team and scoring some very valuable points”.
So the reserve driver spent a chunk of 2026 racing. It is an odd position to be in, and it is a reminder that a modern reserve is not a spectator.
The IndyCar question
The more interesting story is what happens next.
Tsunoda has been linked with a move to IndyCar with Meyer Shank Racing for 2027, in the team’s Honda-powered entry. Nothing is signed, and it should be read as reporting rather than fact. Motorsport.com reported the link in August 2026. Meyer Shank Racing would not confirm or deny it and said only that the team is looking at all kinds of options. As of late September there is still no decision either way.
But the logic holds together. Honda has been behind Tsunoda since the beginning and has a serious IndyCar programme. A driver with Formula 1 experience, a manufacturer relationship and no clear route back to a race seat is exactly the profile that ends up racing in America.
How to judge him
Tsunoda is quicker than his results suggest and less consistent than a top team needs. Both things are true, and the second one is why he is a reserve.
What he has not done is disappear. Five seasons in, he is still the driver Red Bull calls when a seat opens at short notice, which is its own form of respect.
For current standings and the latest, see our Formula 1 coverage. Profile last updated 24 September 2026.