Yuki Tsunoda: racing for F1 return

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1:39Definitely 2025 was the toughest year in my career. At some point it just felt like I'm not really enjoying my life. I'm not really enjoying the driving Formula One much, probably. but at the same time gave me opportunity to look myself through a lot more than any other years. What does it look like for 27? My primary focus is F1. That's my target and I'm not thinking anything else.

2:10Welcome everyone to this week's F1 Beyond the Grid. I am delighted to say we're joined by Yuki Tsunoda. Yuki, how are you? Good Tom. I'm back, I guess it's second time, isn't it? Yeah, you're back on the show. Last time you were on the show, you were telling us about your six pack. Am I? Interesting. And how it was motivating all the mechanics to get back in the gym. Yes. Is it still there? Is it still a six pack? Yes, yes. Actually, I have a bit more time to build my six bucks a bit more than in our previous years because more time than usual to be in a gym. It's now an eight pack. Yes. But I mean, since I'm back to the grid in Netherlands, since then, I mean, knowing that in a race weekend anyway, I'm going to burn a lot of calories.

3:09So I'm eating quite a lot. So maybe now eight packs to 7.5 packs, but I still take it. Easy to make my body shape back. Well, let's talk about the comeback. It's been an extraordinary last month for you. You're back with a bang. How much have you enjoyed it? I definitely enjoyed it a lot. I mean, it was a moment I was waiting for since the first race in Melbourne. Obviously, this kind of opportunity is not in my control, right? It really depends on the drivers and it's not fully in control of myself. So it was hard to keep my mind sharp and also physically sharp, not knowing that when I'm going to race it.

3:58Maybe, you know, I was kind of prepared that I won't maybe not race any race this year. but obviously if there's something opportunity comes I have to perform it so those phases was pretty especially beginning was not easy and watching from the screen in the race every single sessions was not definitely certainly it was not easy at all especially beginning I struggled quite a lot like to just accept you know what kind of situation I am how much did you miss the racing A lot. Fortunately, thanks to Redpool, I was able to have some testing programs. In the TPC car? TPC car, yeah, last year's car.

4:46I did four days until last eight months, well, out of eight months. And I mean, having already the testing is something that I really appreciate with Formula One car. But yeah, it's always by yourself, driving by yourself, right? It's not like competing with other cars or something. So even though I feel pretty good inside the car, you don't know exactly how much performance I'm showing it. And also, it's also hard for the team to know how much I'm in good shape, you know, with lap time. So those things, yeah, definitely something I definitely miss a lot, even though I feel pretty good inside the car.

5:24So, I mean, especially got out from the garage, FB1, you know, driving with 21 cars around. I used to hit a lot with traffic, maybe especially the first three years, two years, I don't know. Whenever I had traffic, I was straight away pressing radio button and I was expressing myself a little bit too much. But now actually, as some part of myself, even I got traffic in Netherlands in FB1 in my push lap. I didn't really got that much excited. I just like actually it's something also partly that I missed you know this kind of situation so yeah I miss Yuki Tsunoda is calming down is that what that's what I thought but in months I wasn't so in every one I was like okay more I do more I do raise I think that all part of myself started back but um you're so passionate Yuki too passionate yes yes when you're forced to sit out as you have been does it does it change your perspective on Formula One now that you're back are you are you gonna enjoy it more than if you'd been able to just continue from one year to the next I think so I think that my perspective got changed inside a car and outside the car I would say outside the car yeah I mean I had a bit more time than usual to like really learn about myself and sort the things out that I couldn't have done.

6:58And also there were a lot of things outside of racing that I wanted to do. What kind of stuff did you get? I don't know, just exploring restaurants and like, you know, more trips to other countries, those sort of stuff. And yeah, that's what I wanted to do when I was especially in the regular driver. And I think also, you know, just in general ways, like finance-wise, everything, things that I was asking to professionals, you know, not really thinking about that much in the last five years since I joined Formula One. So those things I was able to learn a little bit more because I didn't really have time, you know, when I was a regular driver.

7:43So I think it's good. Well, let's talk about the comeback now. there were reports before Zanvo that you were on the beach, is that right, when you got the call? Yeah, I was in Greece and I was watching the nice view. Go on, go tell us, where exactly were you when you got the call and who phoned you? I didn't receive directly call from the team. Actually, I got information from my manager because I saw him suddenly took a call and like, okay, went somewhere in the middle of the break, which I felt was a bit unusual, but okay, maybe his things or whatever. And he came back and said, Yuki, you might raise this weekend in the Netherlands.

8:28And I was literally lying down at the beach or somewhere and yeah, having a nice tan, you know, receiving a nice bit of vitamin D. So yeah, I was like, oh, that's something that didn't expect and also at the same time but somehow I was pretty calm because knowing that those things can change a lot you know oh maybe you know maybe as I come arrives the Thursday and he check we check again and actually it was okay you know those situations can happen and I know a lot of things like that happen so that's pretty calm and okay that's a bit more exciting than usual and something that I can look forward to to be in the track and more than other races this year but I was pretty actually calm and I think it's good that also the part reason that I was pretty calm because I was also knowing that I'm ready you know I'm physically ready and my mindset is ready so yeah okay it actually happened I I'm just you know there's nothing to lose anyway so.

9:27And was it clear from the outset that you were going to be racing bulls or was there a chance that you were going to be in Red Bull racing? I was pretty clear in my mind and our prediction with my manager was being a racing boost. I think also maybe it was not fully cleared then that which teams I'm going to drive but I was talking with managers and you know the tone those things sounds like I'm leaning I'm driving towards more towards B-Carbon but I really didn't mind which team I'm driving because like both teams are performing well and Rebel yeah it would be nice that I'm back because last day I was driving and a lot of things changed this year and also for V-Cup it's the teams I've spent for four years and knowing that I can be very comfortable straight away and feel you know it's very family team and somewhere I grew up so I really didn't mind whatever okay so so what happened next this is the Monday Monday before Zandvoort that was Tuesday Tuesday, I think.

10:35The Tuesday before Zanvoort. You're in Greece. Yeah. Uzo in one hand, whatever. I don't know what's going on. But what happened next? So, okay, I received a call about that exciting news. And also at the same time, okay, there's a high chance that I might race this weekend. So in case I have to be ready more than now or more than ever. So I went straight to UK on Wednesday morning. and I did simulator for like five hours as much as we can. I think on the Wednesday, I knew which team I'm driving. So I went to V-Carve simulator and yeah, we maximized the time as much as possible for the preparation.

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15:01Let's fast forward to FP1 now. This was the first time you'd driven a 2026 car. I was going to say in anger, but at all actually, right? You hadn't tested, done anything. How difficult was that to get your head around? I'm talking about the car. Yeah, so because of I've never driven this car. Also, to be honest, I didn't really pay attention what kind of race week format I'm going to drive. I thought I'm going to have FP1, FP2, FP3, like the usual format. So, okay, like when I got that information that I'm driving this year, okay, I never driven this car, but okay, there's three free practice sessions.

15:37Maybe, yeah, I mean, should be okay. I mean, that three free practice sessions will feel prepared enough, I think. but find out on that similar today that I'm actually driving for a race weekend format. So okay, that's different. You have only one free practice and straight and qualified. So okay, that's very, very tight. But at the same time, okay, after that, actually somehow the pressure or stress just literally went out. I don't know. Not fully, obviously, but like, okay, there's nothing to really lose. and you can't expect how much I can do because I don't know anything about this car, how the behavior looks like.

16:23So see how it goes in FP1 and just try to build the pace from there as much as possible, as fast as possible and aim for qualifying to be okay, maybe in a way that be competitive enough for the team to fight for the points. So what was the hardest thing to get your head around? Was it the deployment? Was it the handling characteristics? Because, of course, narrower, shorter, narrower tyres. What was hardest? I think just to get noticed, the behaviour, the car behaviour, the characteristic. In my opinion, also a bit of driving style is slightly different as well. So I think to get used to it and build the confidence within the race week format was probably the most tricky one.

17:09Unfortunately, this deployment stuff, I think Netherlands was one of the easiest track in the season to kind of manage it. Because anyway, there's short straight and a lot of corners. So you get enough energy throughout the lap, even though you don't manage it. So actually that helped quite a lot. It was more like to just, it was pretty big enough to, you know, I had to adjust driving style and build the confidence in the car within this like three sessions, two sessions before the actual qualifying start. And what was your mindset then going into the weekend? You said there was no stress. Were you just looking to...

17:53There was some stress for sure. There was a lot of stress for sure. But like better than expected, yes. But were you just looking to build, get better from one session to the next? Whether go from almost treat sprint quality like FP2, like you would have done FP2. Is that fair? Is that how you dealt with it? Yeah, but also sometimes qualifying is qualifying, right? So, I mean, thanks to, you know, Alan, that Alan said to me, okay, you know. This is Alan Pameen, team principal. Yeah, that FP1, FP2, well, FP1 and sprint qualifying, and sprint qualifying race just treat us like FP1, FP2, FP3. and you just aim for qualifying to be competitive.

18:33Also, that takes off quite a lot of pressure for myself. It's okay to just build up with my own pace rather than just rushing to perform straight away, top 10 or being within the points because spring race anyway is top eight. It's all counts, right? And this year so far looks like, you know, especially four teams are consistently in those areas. So anyway, it's going to be tough for the team, but also jumping in the first time in this weekend, you know, no one will expect that I will be in a competitive. So I think that that helps quite a lot. So to be honest, my mindset was just for me, it was zero prediction.

19:11I didn't set any targets, set any expectations. Just for me, main objective on that weekend was just enjoy as much as possible. just literally unlock the kind of the motivation or the feeling I had towards that Formula One. I was holding that things, you know, whole time and just unlock that and just literally boost out from my body and like, you know, just enjoy it. And just knowing that, okay, those, if I'm enjoying it, just naturally that will speed up the process to get up the speed and learn fast. So honestly, I just didn't really have any pretty expectation or like literally target on that week.

20:00And did you enjoy it? Did it unlock the inner, what do we call it? The inner beast in Yuki Tsunoda? Yeah, I mean, me saying that I enjoy even having a traffic, that tells, I think, quite a lot. But I think honestly, yeah, every single moment, every single second, even I have mistake, you know, Even I have a massive wind of gas and I messed up my lap. I was like, okay, this is part of the things that I miss a lot. And I was literally, it was like, it feels like rookie time in first race. It reminds me like that much. That much I was like really over the roof. How excited were you on race morning?

20:42You know, as the rain started to come down, it was damp. People were spinning on the opening lap. How did you view that? And the extra challenges, you know, but we love challenges. I love challenges. I mean, if you think about, okay, yeah, there's a dump track, you know, anyway, you want to have consistent track to kind of get up to speed. But, you know, oh, there's a dump track, so it slows down. And if you think those stuff, right, like, it will just, no limit, there's not any, like, endless, endless thoughts you're going to have. So it's just like, oh, you know, there's some challenges. We love challenges and just have to accept that situation.

21:23And, you know, it feels like the challenges that makes me, knowing that makes me strong in the future. So like, okay, just deal with it and just first, just feel the car first, how the car feels like, what the difference looks like. You still can feel it, right? Even in dump truck. So, yeah, I mean, I was pretty calm. well you drove an amazing race to to p11 just ahead of arvid i mean obviously you wanted points but that must have been almost as much as you could have hoped for right definitely i mean and i was fighting for the points until until the last moment so and something that honestly about which i was targeting for but i didn't looking back thursday i mean i was not really expecting that you know and not knowing how much prepared I am so I definitely enjoy especially also battling with Pierre um always love a battle with Pierre yeah yeah I mean he was probably not opposite I was not enjoying it but uh something that if you're fighting for the position that counts a lot for the team you feel more responsible you feel more pressure even you while you're driving the race but like I said those those things is the thing I really most a lot I miss a lot so yeah shame that it's score points there was one mistake but apart from that was pretty good race with the time management and everything energy deployments boosts to overtake the car in front so yeah I think it was pretty good race yeah and how much better prepared did you feel going to Monza then for race two?

23:05Okay. So Monza week after, okay, after that good race, knowing that, okay, I can, I can fight fight hard. I can fight strong in a position that team wants. I have pretty good confidence, but at the same time I heard, okay, now Yuki's Monza will be the toughest track for energy stuff. And this energy stuff is a thing that I really, I didn't have to think about in the Netherlands. So now it's a real challenge kicks in from this regulation. And after that, I went to simulator and experienced it. Okay, how difficult it is. It feels like, okay, another race week that facing to new challenges and almost like back to the Thursday time with myself that, okay, I have to learn a lot of things.

23:50You know what I mean? Like a reset and, okay, let's go back to everything, every procedure, every buttons, everything to make the car work. Can I ask you one thing about Monza? As a racetrack, it hasn't been that kind to you in Formula One, has it? There's been, what, a couple of... Yeah. You haven't even made the start on a couple of occasions, right? Does that bog you down mentally at all, going to a track where you haven't had much luck? Or do you just put that to one side, easy to put to one side? No, not really. to be honest I forgot that I didn't have good race. Sorry to remind you. And I found out I think from social media or something, right?

24:31So, oh yeah, sure. I didn't have any single good race. I didn't have much luck previous years, but honestly, I don't really believe those, I'm the person that I don't really believe those stuff anyway. So yeah, anyways, different, completely different situation this year. So just, yeah, whatever, pack it aside. And Yuki, what did it mean to cross the line in P10 and to deliver points for your racing team? Was that the best P10 you've ever had? The feeling, even the feeling I had then crossing the line, finishing P10, is definitely a bit more special P10 than certainly the last three years of my career.

25:16Like literally, a game felt like really similar feeling towards like the first time I scored points in the Fattori first year. And I feel very valuable than usual. And that's, we're so happy. Yeah, like team are happy. And the kind of moments that you can celebrate with the team, that we had a great weekend. It's a thing also like something I didn't have for a while. So it was a very nice moment.

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27:43Can we talk about Red Bull Racing briefly and just how tough was 2025 for you? What were your biggest learnings? Definitely 2025 was the toughest year in my career. and I learned like loads, heaps of things. And as a human. I was going to say about racing or about you, but as a human. Both, literally both. Like, because normally it was pretty easy to, and I'm the kind of person like, I probably told in this Beyond the Grid podcast last time, as soon as I had good food or whatever, I became able to reset myself between the race week. But I started to really struggle even that. It was second half of the season, especially that somehow when I came back to my house, I just I felt very exhausted and normally able to reset myself, get back this energy after I had good something that I really like.

28:47If I do something that I really like, I was able to reset, but just never that I didn't feel that energy never came back and just keep the race. race was keeps going and going and going. I have so much up and down and at some point it just felt like, I recognized myself that I'm not really enjoying my life I would say. Like I'm not really enjoying the situation, not really enjoying the driving Formula One much probably, as much as I was doing the first two years, three years. So it was a very tough time and outside racing, try to solve those things issue right? What can I do to help that? And if I look back, is there something else other than eating food or those stuff?

29:31What makes me happy? And normally it's friends but you know mostly friends in Japan and okay I recognize okay actually I'm away from Japan. That's I really never never thought about since probably first in F3. So okay this is stuff, something that I have to resolve myself. And I got help quite a lot with a psychology trainer and all those things. But, you know, Rex was pretty busy in the second half. So it was a pretty tough time. But at the same time, something that the year that gave me opportunity to look myself through a lot more than any other years. What was the car like, the RB21? You know, normally I'm able to understand the car, what I'm driving, what kind of characteristic, obviously end of the year.