Red Bull to Part Ways With Yuki Tsunoda After 2025 Season: Report
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
The Red Bull Racing Formula One team will part ways with Yuki Tsunoda after the 2025 season. A report by GPBlog suggests that Red Bull will not extend Tsunoda's contract, which is said to expire at the end of the current year.
The Japanese driver was promoted from Red Bull's junior F1 team, Racing Bulls, after the first two rounds of the 2025 season. Red Bull assessed Liam Lawson's performance in the first two rounds before demoting him to Racing Bulls.
The report about Tsunoda's ousting arrives amid rumors of Max Verstappen's potential move to Mercedes, which gained traction after George Russell admitted that his contract extension discussions were on hold due to Mercedes' ongoing talks with the four-time world champion.
Tsunoda's performance at Red Bull has considerably dropped, given that the RB21 F1 car is reportedly suited to Verstappen. He has been able to score ten points thus far as opposed to the Dutch driver's tally of 165 points.
Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing walks in the paddock during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 5, 2025 in Northampton, United Kingdom.
Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing walks in the paddock during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 5, 2025 in Northampton, United Kingdom.Lawson also struggled with Red Bull's title challenger in the first two Grands Prix. Not to forget Sergio Perez, who faced major challenges while piloting the RB20 last year, which eventually led to his exit after the 2024 season.
Will Tsunoda endure a similar fate? The report affirms that Red Bull's experiment with Tsunoda is set to end after the current season. Furthermore, there remains a possibility of him moving to Aston Martin in 2026 due to Honda's influence, given that the Japanese engine supplier will partner with the Silverstone outfit from next year.
However, the chances of him joining as a reserve driver are higher due to the lack of an available seat, but Tsunoda is less likely to accept a role that keeps him on the sidelines.
Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was ousted by Red Bull last week, and Sky Sports F1's Karun Chandhok believes Horner led a one-car team so far, handing excessive power to Verstappen, while the other drivers struggled for performance. Chandhok believes this contributed significantly to Horner's exit. He said:
"I think in some of what's happened, if you look at it in recent years, it's become a one-car team, right? We've talked about how since Daniel Ricciardo left, the way the car design has gone, the way the team has been structured, it's very much all the eggs in the Max Verstappen camp and in that basket.
"And ultimately that's kind of created his downfall. It's put a disproportionate amount of power into 'Team Verstappen' to the point of which where, if you're the wider Red Bull group, you look at it and go, 'hang on a second, yes Max is on pole of the British Grand Prix, yes he's won two races this year, but the other cars nowhere.'"
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