Yuki Tsunoda says he is “pissed” about losing his Red Bull seat to Isack Hadjar at the end of this season, and believes the speed he showed compared to teammate Max Verstappen is something he can be proud of.
Red Bull will promote Hadjar alongside Verstappen in 2026, with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad forming the Racing Bulls line-up and Tsunoda dropping to a reserve role. Tsunoda only received confirmation of the change from Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko on Sunday evening in Qatar and admitted that it had not yet fully dawned on him that he was preparing for his final race weekend for the foreseeable future, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“Obviously I’m disappointed and angry,” Tsunoda said. “It was just after the flight from Helmut [that I was told]privately, that I won’t be racing next year.
“Surprisingly, I’m doing well. I mean, not well, but… the day after, the next morning, I ordered breakfast as usual, the same food, and probably I don’t realize that this will be the last race, at least for next year. So maybe I will feel more after Abu Dhabi, but that’s how it went and how do I feel now.”
Tsunoda said he was focused on keeping his Red Bull seat as he is contractually unable to move elsewhere before 2026, and that he will try to use his spare time as productively as possible.
“I had no options,” he said. “The thing is, my contract was there, so I couldn’t do much in there. I had a few [expressions of] outside interest, but the contract didn’t really allow me to talk to them or anything. That’s why I was completely focused on the Red Bull seat, and anyway, it has been my priority in the Red Bull family in recent years, because it is also the place where I grew up.
“I’m excited to watch next year from a different perspective and with different eyes because it’s the first time in my career that I’m not racing. I never really sat in the office while people were racing, so I can’t refer to it in this way.
“I can see more of the view, I have [the ability to hear] which every driver does too, so maybe I can learn a lot of things that I never imagined, so I’m excited about that. And I will also still try to be in this form as much as possible when the opportunity arises, I will crush it with that opportunity. So until then I have to keep my form and wait.”
Tsunoda was promoted to Red Bull to replace Lawson for two races this year after impressing at Racing Bulls, and admitted a part of him wishes he could have continued to perform with the junior team, even though he thinks he was keeping up well compared to Verstappen’s pace.
“The only thing I regret is that I missed that pretty good car in the VCARB,” he said. But it’s also like throwing away your children and your baby, because it’s the car I’ve developed with the team over the years since we had these regulations, and I’m sure it has my DNA in it too.
“So I obviously miss that and [leaving] without finally reaching the level we wanted is something I missed, but at the same time I don’t regret that decision.
“The Imola [crash] is definitely something I look back on and still frustrates me a lot, because the crash I had was very unnecessary… but it also made me take a step back in terms of parts.
“But at the same time, if you look at the whole season, maybe especially the second half of the season, if you just look at the result of where I was in Q1 and [Verstappen is] Consistently top three, top four, the result looked bad, but at the same time, if you just look at the performance side, even the times I got out in Q1, I can’t remember the last time I was four or five tenths behind.
“Once I had exactly the same car, I was very competitive with him and I think that’s where this (second Red Bull) seat struggled. And actually I’m proud of myself, how I grew up and how I improved throughout the season.”
“Max has been driving here for years. He knows a lot about this car. Obviously I cannot deny that he is the best driver on the grid, but at the same time I am happy that I can overtake quite quickly at this level, especially in this very tight field. This year is one of the tightest fields in history.”
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