Yuki Tsunoda opened up about how his season with Red Bull in the 2025 Formula 1 season was difficult and left him exhausted, calling it the toughest year of his career.
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Last year, the Japanese driver got the opportunity to race in the main team, taking over Liam Lawson’s seat after just three rounds in the championship.
As expected, he was unable to keep up with Verstappen, finishing the year with 33 points against his teammate’s 421, and for 2026 he ended up without a seat, taking only the role of Red Bull’s reserve driver in F1 – which has proven useful, as he was called up by Racing Bulls in the last three rounds.
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“Without a doubt, 2025 was the toughest year of my career, and I learned a lot. I’m the kind of person who, as soon as I ate something I liked or did something enjoyable, could recharge my energy between race weeks. But I started having a lot of difficulty, especially in the second half of the season; somehow, when I got home, I felt extremely exhausted,” he said.
“Normally, I can recover and regain energy by eating something I like or doing something I enjoy. But this time, I felt that energy didn’t come back, while the races kept happening, one after another. I experienced many ups and downs and, at some point, I realized I wasn’t really enjoying life, or rather, I wasn’t enjoying the situation or racing in Formula 1 as much as in my first three years,” he added.
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