Barely three months ago, Yuki Tsunoda’s window to drive for Red Bull Racing in Formula One appeared to have closed. Despite putting forward a strong case through the 2024 season for its sister team, RB, Red Bull passed over Tsunoda when replacing Sergio Pérez. Instead, it promoted Tsunoda’s teammate Liam Lawson into the seat.

Aside from Lawson's clear difficulty adapting to the infamously tricky RB21, it has also been noted that Tsunoda has had a strong start to his 2025 campaign and appeared revitalised after switching his management at the start of the year.

Red Bull announced on Thursday it is shifting its driver rotation around just two races into the new season, announcing that Yuki Tsunoda will replace Liam Lawson as Max Verstappen’s teammate.