F1 | Yuki Tsunoda renews with Racing Bulls for 2025

Yuki Tsunoda was one of the drivers on the list of some teams for the next season, but this morning Racing Bulls took him off the market by announcing that they had renewed the Japanese driver’s contract for the next Formula 1 season. The 24-year-old native of Sagamihara accepted the offer proposed by the top management of the team which is still based in Faenza and will conclude the era of ground effect cars always at the wheel of a VCARB.

The team directed by Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer was convinced to retain Tsunoda also thanks to a never-so-good start to the season by the rider supported by Honda. In the first 8 races held so far this season, Tsunoda has collected 5 points finishes for a total of 19 points collected out of the team’s 24 overall, the result of two seventh places, one eighth and two tenths.

“I am very happy to remain with Visa Cash App RB and it is a great feeling to have decided my future so soon. For this I want to thank all the collaborators at Red Bull and Honda who have played such an important role in my career and will continue to do it,” Tsunoda said.

“The team has a big development project ahead of them and I’m excited to be part of it. It’s great to know that everyone appreciates the hard work I’ve put in and that the team believes I can help them move up the grid. We’ve already done obvious progress this season and this motivates me to always give my best and that’s what I will continue to do with VCARB,” he continued.

“For the moment, I am focusing on the remaining races of this season, with the aim of bringing home as many points as possible, always growing with the team, laying the foundations to do even better next year!”, he concluded .

Thanks to this renewal, Yuki Tsunoda becomes the driver with the most complete seasons in the Faenza team, 5, surpassing the previous record held by Pierre Gasly. The transalpine driver, now at Alpine, is still the record holder in terms of GPs made with the Italian-Austrian team with 96 starts, but at the end of the 2025 season Tsunoda will have beaten that record reaching 111.

In his three full seasons with Racing Bulls (first AlphaTauri), Tsunoda collected 61 total points (32 in the first season, 12 in the second and 17 in the third). This year, as mentioned, it is at 19 and has already done better than the 2022 and 2023 years thanks to a VCARB01 that has clearly grown during the latest releases.

“I have observed Yuki’s progress in Formula 1 with interest even before my return to Faenza and it has been impressive, year after year,” commented Laurent Mekies, Team Principal of Visa Cash App RB. “The step forward he has made this year is simply phenomenal and continues to amaze us all, race after race.”

“There is no doubt about his natural speed, to which he has now added a much more mature approach: this combination makes him a very fast and consistent driver, as well as a great team man. We continue to understand better what he needs from us and vice versa, so we are progressing together, Yuki as a driver and the team, as Visa Cash App RB, we have the same ambitions, so there are many good reasons to continue our journey together!”, he continued.

The CEO, Peter Bayer, also expressed his satisfaction at having closed the operation: “Yuki was part of both the Red Bull and Honda Junior Driver programs and it is thanks to good work from everyone that he was able to reach his current level of performance. As the saying goes, ‘winning team, you don’t change’, so we are pleased to confirm Yuki as part of our future both on and off the track has made him very popular with fans around the world. We are thrilled that he remains with us.”

Tsunoda’s confirmation for 2025 opens up a complex scenario for Daniel Ricciardo. His results cannot make him sleep peacefully and, barring a radical change in results from Canada onwards, it will be difficult to see him as a starter in the Faentino team next season. Behind him, we remember, there is always Liam Lawson, who last year demonstrated that he was ready to make the leap into the world championship Circus by finishing in the points on an occasion in which he was called upon to replace the Australian who was injured in Zandvoort.

In the transfer choices for next season, it is also good to remember the political movements between Red Bull and Racing Bulls. With different factions trying to battle for control of the Milton Keynes team (including the Austrians of the Group fighting with Christian Horner), Ricciardo’s future remains hanging by a thread. Meanwhile Lawson waits at the door.