Hi, everyone! After the double-header opener of the 2025 F1 season, the dust is starting to settle in the single-seat motor racing world. Drivers are getting used to their new gigs, engineers are learning the weaknesses of the cars and team principals are planning for the season. And although neither of us has ever met Zak Brown, we’re imagining that he is spending this break between races discreetly grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Christian Horner? Not so much.
While we are fresh of a off a season that saw Red Bull’s number one driver Max Verstappen claim his fourth-consecutive World Drivers’ Championship, Red Bull Racing came only third in the race for the constructors, behind both McLaren and Scuderia Ferrari.
One of the big questions last year — as we discussed in our ‘End of Season’ roundtable — was whether Sergio Pérez would continue into 2025, or whether someone else would get the second Red Bull seat. Despite granting him a two year contract extension, Red Bull ultimately chose to part ways with him after Perez finished the season in eighth place. This sequence of events led to one of the most desired, but also arguably the most feared, seat in Formula 1 open for the taking.
We won’t go into the extended history of the tumultuous driver swaps that took place in Milton Keynes over the last few year, however, it was still a surprise to see Liam Lawson — an academy driver with half a season of experience at sister-team Racing Bulls — emerge victorious.
Although a talented driver in his own right, Lawson was (and still is) quite green. At a time where Red Bull is seeking to claw itself back to the top of the Constructors’ standings, promoting someone who is still finding their footing was always a risk. And, if memory serves, it also puts an enormous pressure on the driver — pressure that has not always led to the best outcomes in the past. Lawson’s underperformance in Australia and China was not a surprise to long-time fans of the sport.
Nevertheless, after just two races, Red Bull has decided to send Lawson back to Racing Bulls and promote experienced driver Yuki Tsunoda. Tsunoda, a graduate of both Honda’s and Red Bull's driver academies, debuted in the 2021 for Racing Bulls, formerly known as Alpha Tauri. Touted as a rising sensation in his academy years, the Japanese driver’s four seasons of experience in F1 have seen him continuously improve to become a dependable, well-rounded driver who has grown to occupy an important leadership position at the junior team. Moreover, this promotion to the first team has arrived at a time where Tsunoda has been in great form, hampered somewhat in points by bad strategy calls and the limits of the Racing Bulls car. He’ll now have the opportunity to fight at the front of the sport and to dispel the idea of the “second seat” curse. Perhaps most excitingly, Tsunoda won this opportunity just ahead of his home race — the Japanese Grand Prix — which is set to kick-off on April 6, at 1:00 a.m. EST.
Of course, one of the strongest universal motivators also contributed to the decision to swap drivers – money. Sponsors are a critical factor in the success of F1 teams. The full name of this Red Bull’s team is Oracle Red Bull Racing, featuring the title sponsor. While Oracle has committed the most money to the team, running an F1 team is no easy feat. Teams can spend over one-hundred million dollars a season on salaries, parts for the cars, transportation, and other critical logistics and engineering.
Another large contributor to Red Bull’s success is the Japanese car brand Honda, who is also the team’s engine manufacturer. Yuki Tsunoda is currently the only Japanese driver on the grid, and Honda has always been his primary supporter. The company is cutting ties with Red Bull at the end of the 2025 season and switching to supplying rival team Aston Martin, but Honda reported they will continue promoting Tsunoda. They would have likely pushed the Red Bull team to grant him the spot, as Honda would benefit widely from the Japanese driver performing well, especially at his home race in Suzuka.
Altogether, Yuki Tsunoda is now set to join Red Bull at an incredibly interesting time in the organization’s history, after numerous changes in personnel and at a time where McLaren appears to be the team to beat. Despite Helmut Marko’s meaningless guarantee that Tsunoda will finish the season with Red Bull, this is a crucial opportunity for the 24 year old driver to show that he can adapt to the competition in the “front-row” of the sport. We here in the Sports section will be watching closely to see how his season will play out, and how this affects Red Bull’s fortunes in 2025.
