Yuki Tsunoda, born May 11th 2000, is a Japanese Formula One driver racing for Red Bull’s sister team, RB. His F1 career began in 2021 after only one season in Formula 2, where he finished the championship one point behind second place and won the Anthoine Hubert award for being the highest finishing rookie. Tsunoda had been on Red Bull’s radar for a few years before that, having impressed Red Bull advisor, Helmut Marko, by winning the 2018 F4 Japanese Championship in impressive style. He crushed the competition by winning seven of fourteen races and landing on the podium in all but three. After a Formula 3 test with Red Bull later that year, he joined their junior team and made the move up to enter the 2019 Formula 3 Championship. Tsunoda got off to a slow start that year but managed to string together three podiums in a row with one victory towards the end of the season. It was enough for Red Bull to back his move up to Formula 2 the following year in 2020. Tsunoda was told that if he could finish the season fourth or better in the championship, he would have a race seat at Alpha Tauri (now called RB). Throughout his career Tsunoda has been backed by Honda, Red Bull’s engine manufacturer, and with their help along with Red Bull’s he rose through the ranks of single-seater racing to Formula One in only five years, a remarkable feat. In terms of raw pace, Tsunoda is incredibly fast, and if he can continue to eliminate the simple mistakes that young drivers sometimes make he will become a force to be reckoned with. He may even find himself promoted to a seat at Red Bull.
Yuki was born in Sagamihara, Japan in the Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo. He began karting at the age of 4 after watching his father compete in a local racing series at Nakai Inner Circuit. A lover of motorsports, his father also competed in Gymkhana and helped to coach Yuki through his early days, serving as mechanic and mentor. In an early lesson, he taught his son how to apply the brakes going into a corner to help the car rotate. When he was 7, Yuki went to the Fuji Speedway to see his first F1 race, and instead of being in awe of drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, he remembers thinking that one day he wanted to race against them. Now that he does, he feels that it’s a tremendous honor. Still, he wants to win. No Japanese driver has ever won a Formula One race, so Yuki would be the first. As a kid in 2016 he learned a valuable lesson when he made the leap to Japanese Formula 4. He was over-confident in his ability to make the Honda Formula Dream Project team and went into the qualifying trials underprepared. His mental game was off and he jumped the start. Even though he knew his starts were often weak, he had not felt the need to practice them. Fortunately, Satoru Nakajima, the first full-time Japanese F1 driver and the first Japanese driver to score points in F1 was there that day and recommended that Yuki join his Suzuka Racing School. It was a second chance. Yuki vowed to work harder and never miss an opportunity to improve his skills. After graduating later that year, Yuki landed a seat with the Honda Formula Dream Project for the 2017 season and finished third in the championship. The following year, he handily finished in first and moved up to Formula 3.
Yuki Tsunoda has often been described as a diamond in the rough. During his first year in Formula One he could be very fast at times but was often frustrated by his inability to find the line between driving at the limit and spinning off the track. He also had a propensity for using foul language (which he learned from the mechanics in junior categories) over the radio while berating his engineers. Eventually he began to lose the confidence of his team and was asked to move to Italy where he would be closer to Alpha Tauri headquarters and under the microscope, working on his physical and mental fitness. The new surroundings paid off, and Yuki’s on track performance improved during the second half of the season. Yuki also discovered a love for Italian food, although he still prefers Japanese, and says that if he were not a driver he would be a chef and restauranteur. He loves to eat in the hospitality tents on track and book dinner reservations in the different cities he travels to with Formula One. Apparently, he just loves to eat, and since he’s only five-foot-two, his weight is never an issue. In 2022 Tsunoda continued to improve, although the Alpha Tauris were not as competitive as the previous year. The evidence could be seen in Yuki’s qualifying performance against his teammate Pierre Gasly. Rather than being beaten soundly 21-1 by the more experienced Gasly, 2022 ended 13-9. Could Yuki Tsunoda be the first Japanese driver to win an F1 race? Millions of adoring fans hope so. In 1990, Aguri Suzuki was the first Japanese driver to podium in F1. In 2012, Kamui Kobayashi stood on the podium four times. Takuma Sato won the Indy 500 in 2017 and 2020 after having little success in F1. The speed is there, but Yuki will need to continue on a steep learning curve and get into a faster car in order to build on the legacy of his fellow Japanese compatriots.