Red Bull hails Yuki Tsunoda’s “exceptional starts and excellent racecraft” as it demotes him

Laurent Mekies was full of praise for Yuki Tsunoda as Red Bull announced his successor Isack Hadjar

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies keenly praised Yuki Tsunoda’s skills as a Formula 1 driver as his demotion to a test and reserve role was announced for 2026.

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Isack Hadjar will join Max Verstappen at Red Bull after a promising maiden F1 campaign at Racing Bulls, while Tsunoda was in contention to partner rookie Arvid Lindblad in the Faenza-based outfit but lost out to incumbent Liam Lawson.

Tsunoda wasn’t helped by his dismal 2025 campaign, having replaced Lawson at Red Bull after the first two grands prix, so catastrophic was the New Zealander’s early form. The Japanese racer was soundly outperformed by Verstappen in both qualifying and races, to the extent that he has scored just 30 points at Red Bull, while the Dutchman is going into a three-way title showdown with a tally of 396.

“Yuki has raced in Red Bull colours for seven years now and I have had the pleasure of working with him at both Red Bull teams,” Mekies said. “Through his five seasons so far in Formula 1, Yuki has matured into a complete racer, good over a single lap on Saturday and capable of exceptional starts and excellent race craft on Sunday.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team, Laurent Mekies, Alpine

Photo by: Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images

The wording is important here. Tsunoda is “capable” of the aforementioned racing feats. In other words, Mekies is aware of this immense potential but his driver’s performance has not consistently been at that level.

Mekies’ somewhat more reluctant acknowledgement of Tsunoda’s one-lap pace – merely “good” – comes as he is 25-1 down on Verstappen in qualifying, which translates to 21-0 in non-sprint sessions.

Depicting Tsunoda as a “complete racer” consequently becomes contradictory.

“Everyone in the sport would agree it is impossible not to like Yuki, his personality is infectious, and he has become a very special part of the Red Bull family,” the Frenchman added. “On behalf of everyone at Red Bull, I thank him for what he has contributed so far and we know he will provide invaluable support to the 2026 projects moving forwards.”