How Yuki Tsunoda's new attitude helped him land a seat with Red Bull

Japan Times

04-04-2025

As his fellow Formula One drivers cooled down their cars, waved to fans and took deep breaths after 90 minutes of high-intensity racing, Yuki Tsunoda raged.
Toward the latter stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix last March, Tsunoda was told to let his teammate Daniel Riccardo pass him. Riccardo was on fresher tires, and the team strategists reasoned that he had the better opportunity to fight for a points finish.
Across several messages over the team radio, Tsunoda wasn't shy about expressing his displeasure, but he eventually let the Australian through.
Then on the cooldown lap after the race, his anger boiled over.
The Japanese driver aggressively overtook Riccardo, nearly causing a collision between the two cars.
After the race, Riccardo diplomatically called it a 'bit of immaturity' on the part of the young driver.
'I was a bit heated,' Tsunoda admitted a few days later. 'I was getting heated moments in my brain.'
Heated moments were a recurring theme for Tsunoda early in his career.
Upon entering the sport with Alpha Tauri, now known as Racing Bulls, Tsunoda quickly gained a reputation as a hothead and became known as much for his colorful messages over team radio as his driving skill.
That may have helped him develop a cult following among F1 fans, but it didn't do his long-term career prospects any favors.
Indeed, it's hard to imagine Racing Bulls' senior team would want that version of Tsunoda in 2025 as it strives to win back the constructors' title.
Now, as he prepares for his Red Bull race debut on Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix, those close to Tsunoda are adamant that the six-time constructors' champion is getting a new and improved version of the hotheaded rookie from 2021 — a calmer, more consistent driver who is finally ready to fight at the front of the grid.
Growing pains
From the very start of his F1 journey, Tsunoda was known both for his talent behind the wheel and his road rage.
He cursed about traffic in front of him, told his race engineers to 'shut up' and criticized various aspects of his car and team strategy.
Just a few months after his first F1 race, Tsunoda admitted on the 'Beyond the Grid' podcast that his anger management was a weak point and something that he was working on.
'Controlling myself is now the main topic for me,' he said. 'This is definitely now my weak point and I have to now really improve on this radio communications.'
While Tsunoda has calmed down since then, the high-pressure environment in F1 means his radio transcripts will never be family friendly.
Last year, Tsunoda was fined after he used an offensive term to describe another driver's intelligence during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Tsunoda later apologized on social media, saying he didn't understand the true meaning of the word.
In truth, the fact that Tsunoda isn't a native English speaker is part of the reason he's come across as such a colorful character.
'I had a quick temper but I was still learning English, and I was amazed at how you can express yourself with swear words very easily. In Japan we don't have (those) kind of words, so I was a little bit enjoying (using those) words,' he reflected during an interview with The Japan Times on Tuesday.
Tsunoda signs autographs after the first practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday. |
AFP-JIJI
Mental maturation
Alpine driver Pierre Gasly had a firsthand view of the more volatile Tsunoda during the Japanese racer's early years in F1. Gasly already had three full seasons and a race win under his belt when he was paired with Tsunoda at Alpha Tauri in 2021.
'I think he always had the raw speed,' Gasly said during a news conference on Thursday. 'It was a little bit too hectic behind the wheel at times, on the radio. I think in that sense, he's matured enough in minimizing the mistakes.'
Tsunoda said his mental development was a conscious decision he made due to the realization that a calmer approach would be better for his career in the long run.
'The team expected me to say in the radio more like car feedback rather than emotion,' Tsunoda said. 'You don't want to have that kind of easy temper and emotion straight away.'
Tsunoda said that Red Bull boss Christian Horner typically said little to him about his driving skill during their discussions, instead focusing his attention on Tsunoda's attitude behind the wheel.
'Now I'm naturally just a bit calmer,' Tsunoda said. 'I started to also see clear benefits from not being quick-tempered and shouting on the radio.'
Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies was quick to praise the growth of his former charge, both inside and outside the car.
'We have seen him being more calm, being more mature, improving massively his technical feedback ... and this is converting into speed,' he said during a news conference on Friday. 'So as a result, the natural speed when he gets into the car is higher straight away. And when you combine all that, well, you turn a young driver into a team leader, and that's really the role he was taking with the team, certainly from the start of the year.'
The French engineer also praised the 24-year-old's work ethic with comments that might surprise those who remember Tsunoda's lackadaisical attitude toward training during an episode of Netflix's 'Formula 1: Drive to Survive' that aired in 2022.
'As we know, (improvement) never comes for free and without effort. You can sense how much effort and concentration he has been putting into that,' Mekies said.
As an example of his more relaxed mentality, Tsunoda's most notable radio message so far in 2025 was a far cry from his expletive-laden outbursts of the past.
'Woooo! Told you! Iced latte's working baby. Iced latte,' Tsunoda exclaimed after qualifying fifth for the Australian Grand Prix.
Tsunoda sits in his car during practice on Friday. |
REUTERS
Fresh challenge
Tsunoda may need an extra bit of zen as he faces his next challenge with Red Bull.
For one, the car, while undoubtedly among the quickest on the grid, has developed a reputation as being difficult to drive. Sharing a garage with Verstappen is also a daunting challenge, as Tsunoda will constantly be judged against the pace of the four-time champion. It's a position that Horner has called the 'toughest job' in Formula One.
But perhaps most of all, the stakes are simply higher now that Tsunoda is racing for a team with title aspirations. Battles further back in the field are undoubtedly intense as teams strive to move up the pecking order, but there is a big difference between fighting for the bottom points-paying positions and a place on the podium.
So far, Tsunoda looks relaxed even as his Red Bull debut comes with the added hoopla of a shocking driver swap ahead of his home race.
He managed the sixth-fastest time in Friday's first practice session and was just a tenth of a second off the pace set by Verstappen in what Horner called a 'solid start' during an interview with Sky Sports.
Mekies, for his part, expressed full confidence that Tsunoda will succeed with the senior team.
'Yuki is able to turn up to race weekend and from the first lap of (practice) to the last lap of the race, just doing a purely faultless weekend,' he said.
'What you see outside of the car is certainly turning into very tangible improvements when he's driving the car.'
As for Tsunoda's first drive in his new car, his radio message at the end of Friday's first practice session was unlikely to make it onto his greatest hits album.
'I found the car interesting on the track. But yeah, it's OK. Good sesh,' he said.