Yuki Tsunoda says the only regret he has in moving to Red Bull this season was missing out on a “f***king good car” at Racing Bulls.
The Japanese replaced Liam Lawson at Red Bull from this year’s Japanese Grand Prix with high hopes of getting close to team-mate Max Verstappen and bolstering the squad’s constructors’ championship hopes.
However, he endured a frustrating campaign where, despite making progress, he missed out on a podium finish - with a best result being sixth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Things were not helped early on by a sizeable crash in qualifying at Imola that dented his confidence and put him on the back foot in terms of upgraded parts.
In the end, Red Bull felt that his speed and rate of development was not enough, and it elected to replace him with Isack Hadjar for the start of the new rules era.
That decision, allied to the progress that Liam Lawson has made to secure his seat at Racing Bulls for 2026 alongside Arvid Lindblad, has left Tsunoda without a race seat for next season.
Reflecting on the circumstances of earning a dream promotion and it ending up in a situation where he has been left without a race seat for 2026, Tsunoda says he doesn't wish he hadn't taken the opportunity.
However, he says there is one thing that he does regret – and that is having left behind what proved to be strong car at Racing Bulls for something that was more challenging at Red Bull.
“Probably I was saying that I didn't have any regrets, but I mean the only regret I have is missing out on that pretty good f**king car in VCARB,” said Tsunoda, who will be Red Bull's test and reserve driver next year.
“It is like throwing away your kids, your baby - because this is the car that I developed with the team throughout the years, since we had this regulation. I'm sure there's my DNA inside as well.
“So missing out that and finishing it without finally being able to get at the level that we wanted is something that I miss. But, at the same time, yeah, I don't regret that decision [to join Red Bull], I would say, still now.”
Tsunoda said he was informed on Sunday night of the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend by Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko that he was not being retained for 2026.
And while “disappointed” about the call, he reckons the news probably won’t hit home properly until after this weekend’s race in Abu Dhabi.
“Probably I'm not recognising enough that it will be the last race,” he said. “So yeah, maybe I'll feel more after Abu Dhabi.”
Looking back at the way that things turned out this season, Tsunoda admits he still carries with him a degree of annoyance about the big impact that his Imola crash had.
“Imola, for sure, is something that I look back on that frustrates me a lot still. The crash I had was very unnecessary and also I couldn't avoid. For sure, that made myself step back in terms of parts.”
'Couldn't do much' with other options
Red Bull’s late decision in electing not to retain Tsunoda for next year has left him unable to seek other opportunities to continue racing in F1.
And while he revealed in Abu Dhabi that there had been other teams interested in him, he said that contractual restrictions imposed by Red Bull meant he could not begin negotiations.
“My contract was there, so I couldn't do much,” he said. “I had a couple of interests externally. But really my contract didn't allow me to talk to other teams or whatever.
“So that's why I was fully focused on Red Bull. I mean, anyway, it was my priority the last few years. Red Bull is the place where I grew up, so that's it.”
