(Motorsport-Total.com) – Things can change quickly: At the Dutch Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda suddenly finds himself back in the Formula 1 cockpit. When the decisive call came in, the Japanese driver had only been on summer vacation in Greece for 24 hours. “I was with my manager and also other friends in Greece and spent time with them. I was at the beach,” he reports.
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Completely unexpectedly, his management called him on his mobile phone: “I wasn’t just hanging out on the beach all the time and still trained and everything. But at the moment I got the call from my managers on the beach, I was quite relaxed and looking at the beautiful ocean.”
“I just suddenly got a call: ‘You have to go to Great Britain.’ Okay, I had only been in Greece for 24 hours and you already want me to fly to Great Britain? – ‘Maybe you’ll race this week.’ Okay, then I’ll fly!” Of course, the Japanese driver didn’t need to be asked twice.
The reason he is physically and mentally ready to go immediately despite the abrupt interruption of his summer break is that he stayed fully in training. Since he lost his regular seat at the end of last year, he has been serving as an official reserve driver for Red Bull.
“It was very unexpected,” he says about the sudden opportunity. “I’m actually quite calm and looking forward to tomorrow. It was a moment I had been waiting for and definitely wanted to experience. When you follow every race from the screen, you feel like you really want to be back and drive.”
Physically, the Japanese driver also sees himself fully up to the task, as he did not slack off despite the lack of race practice. “Physically and mentally, I think I’m sharp enough. I trained almost every day for a long time. I had a lot of time to train because I had nothing else to do,” explains Tsunoda.
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He also stayed in rhythm through private test drives: “Additionally, I completed four TPCs [tests in cars at least two years old] and covered five race distances. So I’m in training and gained good experience in these tests.”
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Trained on the wrong car?
The biggest hurdle for the weekend in Zandvoort for Tsunoda now lies in adapting to the current Racing Bulls car. This season, he was deeply involved in simulator work and development of the Red Bull main team. However, that spot was given to Liam Lawson.
He hardly used the sister team’s simulator before the deployment: “Honestly, on Wednesday I was literally in the Racing Bulls simulator for the first time. In terms of vehicle understanding, I definitely have more experience at Red Bull.”
Nevertheless, Tsunoda brings a lot of familiarity, as he raced for the Faenza-based team from his debut in 2021 until spring 2025. “Regarding the switches on the steering wheel and everything else, I knew there are hardly any differences compared to last year. Where you have to touch the switches, which switch does what – there’s no big difference,” he emphasizes.
“So it’s not like I have received a lot of information from this team so far, but I don’t feel confused or overwhelmed. Most of it is within expectations and I think it will be a pretty smooth transition between Red Bull and Racing Bulls.”
He approaches the task calmly, even though the exact downtime of Hadjar is unclear and it is still uncertain whether Zandvoort will be a one-time guest appearance. “All I have to do is get used to this car, which in my opinion feels quite different.”
“And the procedures, like starting and everything. Having only one free practice will be tricky, but that’s why I don’t set any expectations. At the moment, I’m just enjoying it and having fun – what I have wished for a long time,” Tsunoda concludes.
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