Yuki Tsunoda returns to the Formula 1 cockpit—at least for a show run with the legendary Red Bull RB7 in San Francisco.
Yuki Tsunoda will once again take his place in a Formula 1 car – albeit not as part of a Grand Prix. The Japanese driver will compete in a demo run in San Francisco in the legendary Red Bull RB7, the car in which Sebastian Vettel became world champion in 2011.
Alongside Tsunoda, former Formula 1 and rallycross driver Scott Speed, off-road racer Mitch Guthrie, and freestyle motocross athlete Aaron Colton, among others, will take part in the event. For Tsunoda, this will be his first public outing in a Formula 1 car since losing his regular cockpit at the end of 2025.
“I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. And to do so in the RB7 in San Francisco – it’s going to be incredible,” says Tsunoda. “I’m looking forward to doing a few donuts and making some real F1 noise in front of the fans.”
From regular driver to reserve driver
The 25-year-old lost his regular cockpit at Red Bull at the end of the 2025 season. 2026 will be his sixth year within the Red Bull organization. Since his debut in 2021 with AlphaTauri—now Racing Bulls—Tsunoda has been a consistent member of the energy drink company’s junior program.
Before the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix, he was promoted to the A-team, replacing Liam Lawson. However, Tsunoda was only given the chance to prove himself worthy of a contract extension until the end of the season. Red Bull ultimately decided against continuing to employ him as a regular driver and instead promoted Isack Hadjar to partner Max Verstappen. Tsunoda took on the role of test and reserve driver.
“A difficult decision”
Team principal Laurent Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner in July 2025, spoke at the time of a “very difficult decision.” “The second seat at Red Bull is not an easy one. We have a demanding car. Of course, we tried everything we could to support Yuki,“ Mekies explained. ”But at some point, we had to make the difficult decision about where to go in the coming years.“
At the same time, Mekies gave Tsunoda hope: ”I hope and think that Yuki will get another chance. He will be our reserve driver. You never know what will happen. We’ve been known in the past for making driver decisions quite quickly.“
He recalled the end of the 2024 season, when Tsunoda drove strongly but was not promoted at first: ”Three races later, he was sitting in the Red Bull. In motorsport, you never know what the future holds. Setbacks are part of it—sometimes tough ones. But I’m convinced he has enough in him to get another chance.” The show run in San Francisco isn’t a sporting restart, but at least it’s an acoustic sign of life.
