“Call me, please!” – Yuki Tsunoda makes cheeky F1 return pitch after impressive Dutch GP
The past week has been a real rollercoaster for Yuki Tsunoda. Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer had already been informed the previous Friday of Isack Hadjar’s wrist injury and a potential driver change, but according to Tsunoda, he only received the call on Tuesday – while he was still on a beach in Greece.
The Japanese driver immediately stressed that he was physically fully prepared for the stand-in appearance, although adapting to the 2026 machinery remained an important question mark. Yes, Tsunoda has extensively tested the Red Bull car – not the Racing Bulls – in the simulator this year, but the real thing is still different.
But in precisely that respect, the race weekend at Zandvoort went remarkably well. Tsunoda managed to stay close to team-mate Arvid Lindblad’s lap times throughout the weekend, qualified 12th in both qualifying sessions and eventually finished the race in 11th, ahead of Lindblad.
“Honestly, I think I was able to progress faster than I expected. I drove only four times out of eight months since my last race in Abu Dhabi. And with that, I did pretty well,” Tsunoda said after the race.
Tsunoda did acknowledge that it had been quite an adjustment going from the ground-effect cars he had become accustomed to over the previous years to the current machinery.
At an energy-rich circuit like Zandvoort, energy management was not even the deciding factor, but the adjustment was still significant.
Just a few days after he was still on the beach in Greece, Tsunoda made a very good impression at the Dutch Grand Prix
Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images
“I think the most challenging part was pretty much everything – a lot of things, learning about deployment, buttons, everything, all procedures are different. And this race was also challenging because of tyre degradation, the degradation characteristic was also very different,” he said.
“So it was all about how to adapt to that, but honestly, the team supported me a lot. They made it easy for me to drive as fast as possible. It’s a shame that I didn’t score points, but I take it. I was fighting against top eight or top nine until the last few laps, I would say.”
“Teams have to decide if they want me or not, but they should!”
The obvious follow-up question is what this means for Tsunoda’s future. Ahead of the Dutch GP, he had already indicated that F1 remains plan A, but said that he does not want to spend another year on the sidelines.
“I know what I can do and I think I pretty much showed what I can do to most of the paddock,” he said.
“With just one race, a couple of sessions, I was able to fight close to the points. Honestly, I think the outcome was… obviously, scoring points [would have been] better, but I think I did as much as I could.”
Before the opportunity with Racing Bulls arose, Tsunoda appeared to be looking primarily towards IndyCar for 2027 if no door opened in F1. But at Zandvoort, he at least showed that he can still be an asset to any midfield team under the current, complex regulations.
A full-time F1 return remains Tsunoda’s goal, although IndyCar could be an alternative. He does not want to spend another year on the sidelines
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
“It’s definitely better having this opportunity, rather than not having any opportunity, so not being able to show what I can do with these regulations,” he said.
“The rest is up to my manager and other teams who have not decided yet about next year’s line-up, if they want to have me or not, but they should,” laughed the man with 112 F1 starts to his name.
When Motorsport.com asked him whether his chances of a full-time F1 return had increased after the past weekend, Tsunoda paused for a long time.
After seven seconds, he looked up and laughed: “That’s cheeky, huh?”
After another pause of more than 15 seconds, during which he asked the Racing Bulls press officer how best to answer the question, Tsunoda made a light-hearted appeal to F1 teams for 2027 as he walked away: “Call me, please!”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
