Yuki Tsunoda describes Daniel Ricciardo relationship in one word

From multi-time World Champion Max Verstappen, to eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo, to F1 rookie Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda has had teammates of all different profiles in Formula 1.

In an appearance on Red Bull’s in-house ‘Talking Bull’ podcast, Tsunoda was asked to describe every Formula 1 teammate he has had in just one word. For Ricciardo, “mentor” was the word Tsunoda went with.

Daniel Ricciardo a ‘mentor’ to Yuki Tsunoda

Ricciardo and Tsunoda spent a season-and-a-bit as teammates between 2023-24, racing for the junior Red Bull team.

Following the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, Ricciardo departed Racing Bulls, which marked the end of his Formula 1 career with eight grand prix wins to his name, seven via Red Bull and one with McLaren.

Tsunoda meanwhile graduated to Red Bull in 2025.

Closing in on completing his fifth Formula 1 season, Tsunoda stopped by on Red Bull’s ‘Talking Bull’ podcast, giving his one-word descriptions of each Formula 1 teammate he has had.

For Ricciardo, he initially chose “teacher”, before backtracking. “No, teacher is wrong.”

At that point, ‘mentor’ was proposed as a better word to describe Ricciardo, Tsunoda agreeing: “Yes, mentor.”

Ricciardo was the experienced figure at AlphaTauri/RB, a multiple-time race winner looking to work his way back into Red Bull Racing. Tsunoda, as the relatively inexperienced driver he was at that time, was able to test himself against a highly respected F1 racer in Ricciardo, and observe how he operated within a team.

Since departing Formula 1, and calling time on his racing career, Ricciardo has become a global ambassador for Ford Racing.

So, that was Ricciardo matched to a word, but Tsunoda still had four other teammates to get through.

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For Pierre Gasly, his very first F1 teammate, Tsunoda chose “brother”. It was tweaked to “bro” for Isack Hadjar, the impressive F1 rookie who Tsunoda spent the first two race weekends of 2025 alongside at Racing Bulls.

As for Nyck de Vries, who Ricciardo replaced in the Red Bull junior squad, Tsunoda was struggling to keep it to one word.

“We were racing from quite a long time together,” he said. “I don’t know, we can’t say old friends.” As it turned out, he could, with ‘old friends’ accepted.

When it came to current teammate Max Verstappen, Tsunoda once again was pushing the boundaries of the one-word rule.

“Gin tonic.” That was okayed.

For context, Tsunoda revealed that Verstappen was the one who introduced him to the gin and tonic beverage, a guilty pleasure of Verstappen’s.

Tsunoda is battling to retain his place alongside Verstappen at Red Bull for F1 2026.

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