How Yuki Tsunoda reacted when Christian Horner told him he wasn’t being promoted by Red Bull

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner faced a difficult decision when the 2024 Formula 1 season came to an end.

While Red Bull were able to celebrate Max Verstappen adding another title to his collection, Sergio Perez’s form had been worrying for some time.

The 34-year-old went on a run of 19 Grand Prix starts without finishing on the podium, making his position within the team untenable.

Red Bull missed out on the Constructors’ Championship despite Verstappen’s healthy lead in the driver’s standings and that forced Horner to make a change.

There were initially three drivers on their radar, although Red Bull dismissed Franco Colapinto after several high-profile crashes.

This created a head-to-head battle between Racing Bulls drivers Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.

Ultimately, Red Bull opted for the Kiwi and Horner has explained why Red Bull promoted Lawson over his more experienced teammate.

Journalist Ian Parkes has now shared on the RacingNews365 Podcast what Tsunoda previously told him about his future and how he reacted to Horner informing him he would be spending a fifth season with Red Bull’s sister team.

Yuki Tsunoda’s surprising reaction to not being promoted to race for Red Bull

Parkes recalled a conversation he had with Tsunoda last season and said: “I asked him, if you don’t get the Red Bull seat for 2025, you’ve got a one-year contract next year, but if you don’t get the Red Bull seat, what will you do because you will have been overlooked again, will you have to start looking around?

“And to cut a long story short, the bottom line answer was, yes, pretty much.

“And obviously, as well, on the flip side is, will the Red Bull family want to continue sticking with Yuki for yet another season going into 2026.”

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Parkes then talked about a press dinner Christian Horner held after the Liam Lawson decision was made and continued: “He relayed the story that he phoned him [Tsunoda] himself. He phoned Yuki himself to let him know that he hadn’t got the drive.

“And Yuki was pretty much, ‘OK, no problem’. You’d expect a little bit more.

“There might have been turning the air blue, being quite angry and all. But apparently, no, Yuki was pretty chilled about it.

“It came across with the way Christian relayed that particular story that, Yuki was quite nonchalant about not getting the seat.”

Yuki Tsunoda must consider his F1 future after entering the final year of his Racing Bulls contract

Tsunoda was handed a one-year contract extension during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend after a very strong start to the campaign.

Although his points scoring fell away as the season went on – primarily because RB went in the wrong direction with their update packages – he was still fairly impressive throughout the year.

However, being overlooked for Lawson is a serious blow for Tsunoda and he’ll be wondering whether 2025 is going to be his final year with the Red Bull program.

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There have already been suggestions that Tsunoda will leave Racing Bulls this year, but there isn’t an obvious landing point for him right now.

His Honda connections suggest that he could follow them to Aston Martin, but it’s hard to see either Fernando Alonso or Lance Stroll being let go for the Japanese driver.

The 24-year-old is going to have to produce his best campaign to date to try and convince another team in the paddock to take a chance on him heading into 2026.