“Pile on the pressure” – Tsunoda’s strong first response to his Red Bull F1 switch

Hundreds of Formula 1 fans lined the streets of Tokyo for one last chance to visit Honda’s Aoyama headquarters, the elegant white high-rise a stone’s throw away from the Olympic Stadium that hosted the 2021 summer games.

The iconic Aoyama building is set to be closed and redeveloped, with a new, state-of-the-art headquarters to be built by 2030 on the same site. Sunday’s closing ceremony celebrated both the building’s rich history and that of a new beginning for Honda Motor Company.

But Sunday’s event wasn’t just the celebration of a fresh start for Honda, but also for its favourite son Yuki Tsunoda. Just days earlier, the 24-year-old was announced as a Red Bull driver for the remainder of 2025 replacing the underperforming Liam Lawson, swapping seats from next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

As Honda’s partnership with Red Bull is set to end this year before it joins Aston Martin in 2026, the team’s initial decision to promote Lawson instead of Tsunoda meant a Red Bull move seemed like it would never happen for the latter.

Tsunoda joined the Red Bull junior team in 2019 in the wake of the team’s Honda deal and with the blessing of the manufacturer, he was promoted to an AlphaTauri F1 seat in 2021 – Honda and Red Bull then hoped to polish a raw diamond into a future Red Bull driver.

That year a rookie Tsunoda showed some flashes of brilliance that got him through the ranks, but also forged a reputation of being too hot under the collar and not capable enough of developing the car through precise technical feedback.

Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT02

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Despite four years of consistent progression, that reputation appeared hard to shake off, even internally at Red Bull. While members of AlphaTauri, now Racing Bulls, have been showering praise on how Tsunoda has matured into a team leader, there appeared little he could do to convince the likes of Christian Horner that he is no longer the raw source material, but the end product.

Tsunoda put on a brave face in public, but being overlooked by Red Bull year after year was hugely frustrating. He even looked heartbroken during the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix weekend after he was announced for an unprecedented fifth year at the satellite squad for 2025.

Surprisingly, he now finally gets his wish in extraordinary circumstances, at Honda’s home circuit in Suzuka of all places. Tsunoda will have never set foot in the Red Bull RB21 before he goes out in Friday’s first practice session in front of the passionate Japanese fans and the watchful eyes of Honda executives.

But for a man with the weight of expectations behind him, Tsunoda looked relaxed and cracked jokes with the 400 fans that were able to get into the Aoyama building’s welcome plaza as he shared the stage with his mentor and former WTCC driver Ryo Michigami.

“We don’t want to put too much pressure on you, but it’s impossible not to have high expectations,” Michigami suggested, to which a grinning Tsunoda replied: “Yes, please pile on the expectations and pressure!”

He admitted his move ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix initially felt “unreal”, but said he soon got down to business at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory.

Japanese fans show their support for Yuki Tsunoda, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“When I first got the call, I thought: ‘Wow, this is going to be interesting.’ I just felt: ‘I will switch to the other team’,” he said. “Of course, I was happy about joining Red Bull, but when I thought about it carefully, the idea of suddenly racing for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix felt so unreal.

“At first, I was too busy to even take the time to fully appreciate the excitement. I had to jump straight into the simulator, do seat fittings, and take care of a lot of other preparations. Of course, getting promoted to Red Bull is an amazing opportunity, but before anything else, I wanted to talk to my [Racing Bulls] engineers and the people who had supported me, and thank them.”

On his seat fit in the 2025 Red Bull, he said: “Once you sit in an F1 cockpit, the view is the same. Sorry for the boring answer. Since I was a reserve driver this year, I had already done a seat fitting before. But back then I remember thinking, ‘Why am I even doing this? I’m not going to be racing anyway’. This time, I took the seat fitting seriously.”

Enjoying the experience, but aiming for the podium

Tsunoda didn’t appear daunted by the prospect of taming the bucking RB21, where many other drivers have struggled in the seemingly cursed seat alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen. He said his initial feeling from the simulator was positive, although he admitted his glowing comments on testing the 2024 car in Abu Dhabi were cheekily aimed at convincing Red Bull to pick him over then team-mate Lawson.

“To be honest, that was a bit of a sales pitch. But still, I was able to drive it normally right away, so in that sense I do feel like it suits me,” he said when asked by the host about his only previous experience in a Red Bull F1 car. “I spent about two days in the simulator [with the 2025 car]. From that experience, I didn’t find the car to be that challenging to drive.

“I definitely got the impression that the front-end is very responsive, as people often say. But if you ask whether it felt tricky to handle, I wouldn’t say it gave me a particularly strange feeling, at least in the simulator. Of course, how I want to set up the car is probably different from Max. I want to develop my own car set-up, get a good understanding of it, and gradually get up to speed from FP1.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

But while he is under no illusion that the Suzuka weekend will present the challenge of a lifetime, that learning curve is not making him tone down his burning ambition to become the first Japanese driver to finish on the Japanese Grand Prix podium since Kamui Kobayashi in 2012.

“My ambition hasn’t changed. I don’t want to raise expectations too much, but for this Japanese Grand Prix I want to finish on the podium,” he said, this time very seriously. “That said, I know it won’t be easy right from the start. My priority is to first understand the car and how it behaves compared to the VCARB.

“If I can naturally enjoy driving it as I get familiar with it in FP1, then the results will follow. And if that leads to a podium finish, that would be incredible.”

But above all, Tsunoda wants to soak in the experience and grab a unique opportunity to repay Honda for many years of support. “This is the final year of Red Bull and Honda’s partnership, so getting to race in Suzuka as a Red Bull Racing driver feels like fate,” he concluded.

“I want to fight with the best engine – Honda’s engine – while showing my gratitude for everything Honda has done. I hope to enjoy this experience together with all the fans. More than anything, I’m excited about the challenge ahead.

“There aren’t many moments in life where you face this kind of extreme pressure and an opportunity as big as this, so I can only imagine that it’s going to be an incredibly thrilling race.”

For Tsunoda, next week’s Red Bull debut is the culmination of a life-long dream, one that many feel could yet turn into a nightmare if he also struggles to get a tune out of the car like others before him. But with his longer term F1 future uncertain, Tsunoda wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

If Red Bull’s switch hadn’t materialised, Tsunoda’s lost Red Bull dream would have haunted him forever.