Tsunoda urges F1 teams to sign him after finishing 11th on Dutch GP return

Yuki Tsunoda finished 11th at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, completing a remarkable turnaround that began with a phone call on Tuesday while he was still on holiday in Greece. The Racing Bulls stand-in replaced Isack Hadjar, who had suffered a wrist injury, and used the weekend at Zandvoort to make a public case for a permanent return to the grid.

Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer had been aware of Hadjar’s injury the previous Friday, but Tsunoda only received the call four days later. Despite having driven just four times in the eight months since his last race at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he qualified 12th in both sessions and finished ahead of regular team-mate Arvid Lindblad.

“Honestly, I think I was able to progress faster than I expected. I drove only four times out of eight months since my last race in Abu Dhabi. And with that, I did pretty well,” Tsunoda said after the race.

Adapting to the 2026 machinery was the central challenge. Tsunoda has logged simulator time in the Red Bull car this year, but acknowledged that the real thing presented a steep learning curve — particularly around tyre degradation and energy deployment, both of which differ significantly from the ground-effect cars he raced in previous seasons.

“I think the most challenging part was pretty much everything — a lot of things, learning about deployment, buttons, everything, all procedures are different. And this race was also challenging because of tyre degradation, the degradation characteristic was also very different,” he said. “But honestly, the team supported me a lot. They made it easy for me to drive as fast as possible.”

Tsunode said he was fighting inside the top nine until the closing laps, narrowly missing the points. He was candid about what the performance should signal to the rest of the paddock.

“I know what I can do and I think I pretty much showed what I can do to most of the paddock. With just one race, a couple of sessions, I was able to fight close to the points,” he said, adding with a pointed remark: “Teams have to decide if they want me or not, but they should!”

Ahead of the weekend, Tsunoda had already made clear that Formula 1 remains his priority but that he has no appetite for a second consecutive year away from the grid. His performance at Zandvoort — delivered with minimal preparation and on unfamiliar machinery — will do little to dampen that ambition.