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.

Yuki Tsunoda has officially replaced Liam Lawson at the next F1 race in Japan – his home race – in a huge early-season switch at Red Bull. Lawson, 23, has been demoted back down to Racing Bulls after a torrid first two rounds of the season in Australia and China, with an announcement confirming the move on Thursday morning.

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.