Yuki Tsunoda finally sampled Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 car in the Abu Dhabi post-season test and his reaction doubled as an open pitch to be Max Verstappen’s 2025 team-mate.
Tsunoda got behind the wheel of the RB20 at Yas Marina on Tuesday, the first time he’s properly tested a car belonging to Red Bull’s senior F1 team (discounting demonstration runs) since making his F1 debut in 2021.
He has been consistently overlooked for promotion despite seeing off team-mates Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo, as well as comparing well to Ricciardo’s replacement Liam Lawson across 11 weekends as team-mates over the last two seasons - including outqualifying Lawson in all six 2024 weekends.
Lawson was the favourite to replace Sergio Perez in 2025 ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP, with Tsunoda’s Abu Dhabi test planned far in advance as a favour to outgoing engine partner Honda more than a 2025 audition.
But speaking on the day he clocked 127 laps aboard the fastest F1 car he’s driven, Tsunoda was clear: he loves driving the RB20 and said he had no issues adapting to it.
“The Abu Dhabi post-season test has been so fun,” Tsunoda said during a break between runs. “It’s the first time in the past four years that I have driven a different car.
“You can physically feel why the RB20 has been fighting for a championship this year, I feel a clear difference to what I was driving [before].
“The tyre degradation was feeling much less compared to what I had in the previous car - that was much more sensitive and extra.
“We have had a very productive day so I am really happy with that. There is still a lot of learning that I have to do but the team have done a great job of preparing such a great run, it’s been such an enjoyable atmosphere in the garage.”
When asked if the RB20 suits his driving style, Tsunoda replied: “I think so, to be honest I didn’t really struggle much to adapt. I didn’t have much dirty laps. On the long runs I have been able to run consistently and straight away felt the limitations of the car, which if you don’t have confidence in the car you can’t feel any limitations.
“I am more happy than ever at the moment and making sure that the team have the information that they require from each run is the most important thing to get out of today.”
Each of Verstappen’s post-Ricciardo Red Bull team-mates (Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez) have been undone by not being able to adapt their driving style to match the car.
Perez got the closest of the trio but he’s not been able to do so consistently, as each time he’s unbalanced and unable to react when Red Bull’s in-season development improves and changes the handling of the car.
The fact Tsunoda thinks the car suits his driving style and he “didn’t really struggle to adapt” is a clear message to say ‘I won’t struggle if I’m thrown in alongside Max’.
There was also the remark of an “enjoyable atmosphere in the garage” and a general implication of ‘I loved this, I’m ready for this’.
It’s understood that Tsunoda’s mental resilience, more than his ultimate speed, has been the biggest question mark for Red Bull, so this is a clear response to that.
It’s hard to judge exactly how Tsunoda performed. He ended up posting his fastest time at the end of Tuesday's session, a 1m24.689s that put him 17th out of the 23 drivers to set a lap in the rest.
With fuel loads unknown and Tsunoda driving the Pirelli tyre test, comparisons of headline times from the outside are meaningless.
But Tsunoda completing two-and-a-bit race distances will give Red Bull plenty of data to decide how he really performed.
Red Bull’s head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse praised Tsunoda’s “excellent feedback” and said he had “offered valuable insight on the tyre changes Pirelli will introduce for next year”.
It comes days after Tsunoda’s RB team boss Laurent Mekies claimed “it would be a lie” to say Tsunoda wasn’t ready for promotion and racing director Alan Permane called Tsunoda “super quick”.
Ultimately, it will be down to Red Bull to decide whether the Tsunoda’s Red Bull debut has moved the needle and if its most overlooked driver will get a permanent chance to shine.