Honda boss hits back at swirling rumours over mid-season exit – The Formula 1 paddock is rarely quiet, but lately the noise surrounding Yuki Tsunoda’s position at Red Bull Racing has reached a particular pitch of frenzy. Despite having been promoted to the senior team with much fanfare at the start of 2025, Tsunoda has failed to make a meaningful dent in the championship standings. With just seven points to his name versus Max Verstappen’s 165, questions are now being asked about whether the Japanese driver’s time in the top tier of Red Bull’s lineup could be coming to a premature end.
Yet while headlines are being drafted in anticipation of a summer break driver shake-up, one key figure close to both Red Bull and Tsunoda has stepped forward to throw cold water on the speculation. Honda Racing Corporation CEO Koji Watanabe has spoken publicly, not only dismissing the idea of an imminent dismissal but also defending Tsunoda’s role as a long-term investment rather than a quick fix.
The rise and stalling of Yuki Tsunoda
Red Bull’s decision to demote Liam Lawson after just two races in 2025 and place Yuki Tsunoda alongside Verstappen was bold, if not desperate. The team, no longer the all-conquering juggernaut of the previous season, was searching for a spark to reignite its constructors’ campaign. Tsunoda’s arrival was meant to bring stability, consistency and at the very least, a reliable accumulation of lower-end points.
Instead, what they received was a steep asymmetry. Red Bull Racing currently sits fourth in the constructors’ standings with 172 points, a tally which feels flattering when considering Verstappen alone accounts for 165 of them. That leaves Tsunoda’s contribution as, well, mathematically underwhelming.
The whispers started almost immediately. With Red Bull’s notoriously short patience for underperformance and its history of ruthless mid-season swaps, it seemed only a matter of time before another change was made. The name “Liam Lawson” has re-entered conversations in the background, while others wonder whether a completely new face might be parachuted in before the season restarts post-summer.
Watanabe plays the long game
But Koji Watanabe, who has overseen Honda’s deep involvement in Formula 1 and its backing of Tsunoda from his early days, insists the decision-making at Red Bull is not as reactionary as some suspect. Speaking to Japanese website as-web.jp, Watanabe gave a calm and pointed rebuttal to the swirling gossip.
“First of all, I would like to say that there can be no question of a transfer during the summer break,” he stated. “In talks with Red Bull in March, we agreed on Yuki’s move to Red Bull and said: ‘Just because his performance might be a little worse at times, we shouldn’t talk about a transfer immediately, but rather take a long-term perspective.’”
Long-term thinking? At Red Bull? That idea might raise a few eyebrows considering the team’s well-documented history of treating its driver roster like an impatient cook flipping pancakes.
Still, Watanabe isn’t just blindly optimistic. He confirmed he had held direct conversations with Red Bull’s leadership as recently as the British Grand Prix, and was given clear reassurance.
“I know there are various rumors,” he said, “but I checked with the team at Silverstone when the British Grand Prix took place and I want to clarify that Yuki will, in principle, drive for Red Bull until the end of this season.”
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The critics sharpen their knives
Of course, that “in principle” caveat might be doing some heavy lifting. And while Watanabe is eager to build a narrative of commitment and trust, others are not so charitable in their assessment of Tsunoda’s performance.
RTL pundit and former F1 driver Christian Danner was particularly scathing in his analysis, telling sport.de that Tsunoda has “confirmed what I feared” about his capabilities.
“For various reasons, I’ve never thought much of him,” said Danner. “He is more or less a second slower than Verstappen, and it’s primarily about his error rate. That’s unacceptable for such an experienced Formula 1 driver.”
Danner went one step further, predicting with the certainty of a man who’s seen this dance before that Tsunoda will be exiting stage left at the season’s end.
“At the latest after the current season, when his contract expires, Tsunoda will have to leave 100 percent,” he declared. “He will no longer have a future in the premier class.”
Ouch.
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Red Bull’s curious predicament
What makes this saga all the more fascinating is the peculiar place Red Bull finds itself in. A team used to winning is now fourth, trying to salvage pride in a season that has seen McLaren surge ahead and Verstappen carrying the entire outfit on his broad Dutch shoulders.
In that context, Tsunoda’s struggles are magnified. But so too is Red Bull’s lack of options. Lawson, the ever-patient New Zealander, was shunted aside with barely a glance. Daniel Ricciardo’s failed comeback tour is still the punchline to many a paddock joke. And with Sergio Pérez already ghosted from the RB family after his own contract extension was nullified last year, Red Bull’s B-list is looking more like an alphabet soup.
Honda’s looming departure as Red Bull’s engine partner only complicates matters. Tsunoda, long seen as the project child of the Japanese marque, may find his internal value to Red Bull diminishing the closer Honda drifts towards its future partnership with Aston Martin.
What now for Tsunoda?
For now, Watanabe’s comments should offer Tsunoda a reprieve, albeit a tentative one. The message is clear: no changes will be made during the summer break. Whether that promise holds if Tsunoda bins it into the barriers at Spa remains to be seen.
But let’s also spare a moment for the human element. Tsunoda has clawed his way from the lower formulas into the elite ranks, riding on a cocktail of Honda support, raw pace, and a personality that is as refreshingly candid as it is occasionally combustible. The paddock may question his ultimate ceiling, but fans have often rallied around his underdog status.
The Red Bull pressure cooker is a cruel, unyielding place to prove one’s worth. For Tsunoda, the second half of the season is likely to be the longest job interview of his life.
And so, over to you, the jury — does Tsunoda deserve to stay, or is this yet another chapter in Red Bull’s relentless cycle of churn? Let us know your verdict in the comments.
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Eco warrior Vettel backs F1 new direction
In the final years before hanging up his helmet at the end of 2022, Sebastian Vettel has reinvented himself as Formula 1’s unlikely eco-warrior. Once the four-time world champion spent his days travelling the globe at 200 miles an hour and his nights shuttling across continents in team jets. Now, his public role is more about planting wildflowers on racing circuits, giving bees a home metres from the cars hurtling at over 200mph and lecturing on sustainability rather than chasing pole positions.
On his final visit to race in Montreal, Sebastian had taken up a Canadian green cause sporting a helmet bearing the slogans, “Stop mining tar sands” and “Canada’s climate crime.” The vast tar sands of Alberta and west of Quebec have been mined for decades for their oil reserves. This process has contaminated the local environment, endangered wildlife as well as displacing the indigenous population.
Alberta’s minister for energy Sonya Savage, who clearly supports the mining activities slammed Vettel’s position on social media. “I have seen a lot of hypocrisy over the years, but this one takes the cake,” Savage wrote noting Aston Martin’s title sponsor was the largest producer of oil. “A race car driver sponsored by Aston Martin, with financing from Saudi Aramco, complaining about the oil sands. Saudi’s Aramco has the largest daily oil production of all companies in the world. It is reputed to be the single largest contributor to global carbon emissions, of any company, since 1965.”…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
