Last week was a rollercoaster for Yuki Tsunoda. The CEO of Racing Bulls, Peter Bayer, had already been informed the previous Friday about Isack Hadjar‘s wrist injury and a potential driver change, but according to Tsunoda, he only received the call on Tuesday while he was still at the beach in Greece.
The Japanese driver immediately highlighted that he was physically prepared for the appearance as a substitute, although adapting to the machinery of 2026 remained an important question mark. Tsunoda has extensively tested the Red Bull car —not the Racing Bulls one— in the simulator this year, but reality is different.
The race weekend in Zandvoort went remarkably well. Tsunoda managed to stay close to his teammate Arvid Lindblad‘s lap times throughout the weekend, qualified 12th in both qualifying sessions, and ultimately finished the race in 11th place, ahead of Lindblad.
“Honestly, I think I was able to progress faster than I expected. I’ve only driven four times in eight months since my last race in Abu Dhabi. And with that, I put in a good performance,” Tsunoda stated after the race.
He admitted that it was a significant adjustment to move from ground-effect vehicles to the current ones. In a circuit as energy-hungry as Zandvoort, energy management wasn’t even the decisive factor, but the adjustment was significant.
“I thought the hardest part was almost everything – a lot of things, learning about the distribution, the buttons, everything. All the procedures are different. And this race was also complicated due to tire degradation, which was very different,” he commented.
“So, it was all about how to adapt, but honestly, the team gave me great support. They made driving easier for me to drive as fast as possible. It’s a shame I didn’t get points, but I accept that. I fought around the top eight until the last laps, I would say.”
The obvious question that arises is what this means for Tsunoda’s future. Before the Dutch GP, he had already indicated that F1 remains his plan A, but he doesn’t want to spend another year on the sidelines.
“I know what I can do and I think I’ve been able to show what I can do to most of the paddock,” he said.
“In just one race, in a couple of sessions, I was able to fight close to the points. Honestly, I think the goal was… obviously, scoring points would have been better, but I think I did as much as I could.”
Before the opportunity with Racing Bulls appeared, Tsunoda seemed to be primarily looking toward IndyCar for 2027 if no doors reopened to F1. But in Zandvoort, at least he showed he can be an asset for any mid-tier team under the current complex regulations.
A full-time return to F1 remains Tsunoda’s goal, although IndyCar could be an alternative. He doesn’t want to spend another year on the sidelines.
“It’s definitely better to have this opportunity rather than having none so that I can show what I can do with these regulations,” he pointed out.
“The rest depends on my manager and the other teams that haven’t decided on next year’s lineup yet, if they want to have me or not, but they should,” laughed the man with 112 F1 races under his belt.
When Motorsport.com asked him if his chances of a full-time return to F1 had increased after last weekend, Tsunoda paused for a long moment.
After seven seconds, he looked up and laughed: “That’s clever, huh?”.
After another pause of over 15 seconds, during which he asked the Racing Bulls press spokesperson how to better answer the question, Tsunoda made a light-hearted request to F1 teams for 2027 as he left: “Please call me!”
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
