Yuki Tsunoda lifeline emerges as Andretti confirms major signing for 2026 season
Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda prepares for the start of the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Rumours that Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda could secure a Formula 1 lifeline with the Aston Martin team are set to intensify ahead of the F1 2026 season.
It comes after Felipe Drugovich, one of Aston Martin’s current reserve drivers, announced that he is to make a full-time return to racing in Formula E next season.
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Despite winning the prestigious F2 (formerly GP2) championship in 2022, Drugovich has struggled to find a place on the F1 grid over recent years with the Brazilian limited to occasional practice sessions with Aston Martin.
Drugovich announced earlier this week that he is to return to full-time competition with the Andretti Formula E team for the 2025/26 season, casting doubt over his Aston Martin future.
The 25-year-old made two Formula E starts in the 2024/25 campaign as a stand-in for former AlphaTauri F1 racer Nyck de Vries, recording a seventh-place finish in Berlin.
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Fellow Aston Martin reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne has balanced his F1 commitments with his racing activities in Formula E and the World Endurance Championship over recent years.
However, reports have indicated that Drugovich is set to cut ties with Aston Martin at the end of the F1 2025 season, likely a vacancy in the team’s driver ranks.
Tsunoda is widely expected to be replaced by Isack Hadjar at Red Bull Racing for F1 2026 having struggled since becoming Max Verstappen’s teammate after two races of this season.
The Japanese driver has scored points in just five of his 15 appearances for Red Bull’s senior team, going seven races without a top-10 finish between the Monaco and Hungarian grands prix.
Tsunoda has shown improved form over recent rounds and recorded his best result as a Red Bull driver at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix as he came home sixth.
However, he was unable to find a way past the Racing Bulls car of Liam Lawson despite DRS assistance and medium tyres 18 laps fresher than Lawson’s hards.
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Tsunoda has been persistently linked with a future role with Aston Martin since the team confirmed more than two years ago that it would enter a technical partnership with Honda, Tsunoda’s long-term backer, at the start of the F1 2026 season.
Red Bull’s highly successful partnership with Honda will conclude at the end of this year, with the team producing its own engines for the first time next season via its newly established Powertrains division, which is working in collaboration with US giant Ford.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix, Tsunoda admitted that Aston Martin could “maybe” emerge as his long-term destination due to the team’s burgeoning relationship with Honda.
It emerged earlier this month that Hadjar is set to join Verstappen at Red Bull Racing for F1 2026 with Arvid Lindblad, the highly rated F2 driver, taking his place at Racing Bulls.
If true, that would theoretically leave Tsunoda and Lawson competing for the remaining Racing Bulls seat alongside Lindblad.
However, Sky F1 Germany pundit Ralf Schumacher raised the possibility this week that both Tsunoda and Lawson could be dropped by Red Bull at the end of F1 2025 to make way for an all-new Racing Bulls lineup of Lindblad and Alex Dunne.
PlanetF1.com revealed earlier this month that Dunne, the McLaren junior star currently competing in F2, has attracted the interest of Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko.
Marko is understood to have held face-to-face meetings with Dunne and his representatives, although it’s thought these discussions have primarily been for establishing initial contact rather than being with an eye to a 2026 agreement.
Current race drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are under long-term contracts with McLaren, meaning Dunne is highly unlikely to secure an opportunity with the Woking-based team in the near future.
McLaren last year demonstrated an inclination to allow its junior stars to pursue opportunities elsewhere, agreeing to allow newly crowned F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto to take up a race seat with Sauber for the F1 2025 season.
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Appearing on the Backstage Pit Lane podcast, Schumacher claimed that Tsunoda and Lawson could still be let go by Red Bull at the end of this season despite their improved performances in Baku.
And he revealed that a Lindblad/Dunne partnership at Racing Bulls is “certainly” possible for F1 2026.
He said: “Before Baku, I would have said that both Tsunoda and Lawson were out for next season.
“If you want to give young drivers a chance, it will still be very difficult for both of them, because Hadjar could go to Red Bull and you could possibly get Alex Dunne from McLaren and also promote Arvid Lindblad to the Racing Bulls.
“That would certainly be an option. But the Racing Bulls’ expectations have also risen thanks to their good results.
“It would then be unfair if they didn’t keep any drivers with F1 experience.”
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