New Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda has opened up on his infamous feud with Daniel Ricciardo ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Just two races into the 2025 campaign, Tsunoda has been promoted from Racing Bulls to replace Kiwi Liam Lawson in the top team alongside Max Verstappen.
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™, LIVE in 4K with no ad-breaks during racing. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.
The 24-year-old Tsunoda has come a long way since his extraordinary dive bomb on Ricciardo resulted in an expletive-laden rant from the Aussie veteran.
The two drivers, competing for what was then known as the Visa Cash App RB team, were involved in the spiciest battle of the season-opening race in March last year.
Tsunoda qualified 11th — ahead of Ricciardo in P14 — and led his teammate for most of the race until the final stages when the Aussie had a new set of soft tyres.
With Ricciardo running quicker on the faster tyre, the team’s race engineers ordered Tsunoda to let his teammate past.
“Are you kidding me? Now?” Tsunoda said on the team radio.
Tsunoda ignored the order for multiple laps before eventually letting Ricciardo past and the delay robbed the Australian of any chance of getting past Kevin Magnussen and attempting to get the team into the points.
The Japanese driver then completely lost it during the cool down lap.
Tsunoda dive-bombed Ricciardo by torpedoing down the inside of a turn before locking up his brakes and missing the apex entirely.
Watch the incident in the video player atop the page
When Tsunoda raced back into position, he nearly sideswiped Ricciardo’s car.
“What the f**k!” Ricciardo screamed on the team radio. “I’ll save it. He’s a f**king helmet.”
Ricciardo gagged himself after the race, calling Tsunoda’s move “immaturity” and stating the young driver was “obviously frustrated with the team orders”.
At the time, the pair were jostling for a chance to be promoted to the senior Red Bull team in place of Sergio Perez, which eventually went to Lawson.
Ahead of his first chance at his home Grand Prix, Tsunoda admitted in a chat with The Independent that incident forced him to change his approach to racing.
“My mindset would be to take my stress out on the track and then focus afterwards,” he said.
“These days, F1 is more political and has more sponsors. You need to find a balance.
“You don’t want a driver shouting emotions … the team wants to hear specific feedback.
“I had to change my approach for the future, after what happened with Daniel in Bahrain last year.
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be sticking around in F1.
“It’s the one area I’ve worked really hard at and it’s helped change my mindset and be more serious.”
The fresh approach has proven instrumental in Tsunoda’s performance on the track, finishing 12th overall last season with 30 points.
He dominated Lawson in the first two races of this season, with the New Zealander now expected to see out the season back at Racing Bulls.
The move was heavily rumoured during the Chinese Grand Prix, where Lawson qualified last for both the sprint and the feature race.
It compounded his difficult performance in Australia, where he crashed out after starting from pit lane.
Team principal Christian Horner said he hoped Tsunoda, who is in his fifth season, could now help the team move forward.
“We came into the 2025 season with two ambitions: to retain the world drivers’ championship and to reclaim the world constructors’ title, and this is a purely sporting decision,” he said.
“We acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done with the RB21 and Yuki’s experience will prove highly beneficial in helping to develop the current car.
“We welcome him to the team and are looking forward to seeing him behind the wheel of the RB21.”
Discussion about this post