Tsunoda on his biggest mistake in 2025 and how Red Bull struggles made him a better driver

Yuki Tsunoda has enjoyed a surprise three race cameo in 2026, slotting into Racing Bulls in place of Liam Lawson following Isack Hadjar’s injury. While it remains unknown whether Tsunoda will get a fourth outing this season, the Japanese racer has certainly made the most of his unexpected comeback.

Tsunoda is Red Bull’s reserve driver this season, having lost his race seat at the end of last year. After being promoted to Red Bull from the third round of the 2025 season, Tsunoda struggled to make much of an impact and was resigned to playing a support role in Max Verstappen’s championship bid.

Speaking on the latest episode of official F1 podcast Beyond the Grid, Tsunoda explained just how tough 2025 was for him, after many years of relative success at Racing Bulls under their various guises, and exactly what he felt was his biggest mistake.

“One thing about myself I think, if I say [being] completely honest, I have a big enough ego to not change my driving style,” Tsunoda said. “I know what I'm doing in terms of driving. I believe in myself, so I never try to change my driving style to other drivers, even though the driver is competitive and fast.

“Obviously Max, it's a different case, he's a World Champion, he proves a lot of things and I still learn a lot of things from his driving. [It was] probably the first year out of any years since I started that I thought about changing driving style and tried to do something similar to Max.

“But in my perspective, if I just look at data, I didn't really see a huge difference in terms of driving. What I think now is the biggest mistake in last year was to try to replicate the set-up what he's doing.”

Tsunoda scored just seven times out of the 21 Grands Prix he contested with Red Bull, in a car that Verstappen took to second in the championship. The comparison between the two late in that season was stark, with Verstappen winning five of the final eight races, while Tsunoda in the same period recorded a P6, P7 and P10 finish.

That resulted in Tsunoda losing his seat, with Hadjar promoted from Racing Bulls to replace him.

“When I got told, I still remember, I didn't feel that much of huge disappointment or devastated feeling. Obviously, still disappointed and pretty sad that I'm not driving next year. But not as I expected, I don't know why.

“I fought really hard. I fought more than ever in that 2025 year, more than ever. And even if I look back now, I don't have much regret. I gave everything and the outcome is something I didn't like, obviously, but honestly, I just gave everything.”

Tsunoda believes the struggles he went through in 2025 have made him a better driver, and he has impressed for Racing Bulls.

In a new generation of cars, which are very different from what he drove last year, Tsunoda has done well in the three races he has contested – especially in Zandvoort, where the Sprint format meant he only had one practice session to get used to all the changes.

“Going back to this Netherlands story, jumping into the car that I’ve never driven, Sprint Qualifying format, team is doing really well, you know, running P5 in Championship, [knowing] that you can't really mess up for the race, you want to have points,” he added.

“Somehow, I was like really, [feeling] okay. I didn't feel anything, that much, of pressure.”

Tsunoda finished 11th in Zandvoort, one place ahead of his team mate. But he thenfinished 10th at Monza to pick up a point for the team and help them in their fight against Alpine.

“The feeling I had, crossing the line, finishing P10, is definitely a bit more special P10 than certainly last three years of my career. Felt like really similar feeling towards first time I scored points in AlphaTauri [in my] first year.

“I felt very valuable, [more] than usual. I was so happy, team are happy, and the kind of moments that you can celebrate with the team – that we had a good race weekend – is something I didn't have for a while. It was a very nice moment.”

As to Tsunoda’s future, he is still trying to secure a full-time drive for next season. But it is a tough ask, with very few open seats left available.

“My primary focus is F1. I'm trying to be back. That's my target and I'm not thinking anything else. For myself, it's fortunate that I got opportunities so I try and maximise it and hope I can be back in 2027.”

To listen to this week’s episode of Beyond The Grid, simply hit go on the audio player above or click here to listen via your preferred podcasting platform.

You can also check out a huge selection of previous episodes – spanning every decade of F1 – in our dedicated Beyond The Grid library.

You can also watch the podcast on the F1 YouTube channel.