Yuki Tsunoda

Born in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Tsunoda started his professional karting career in 2010, joining the JAF Junior Karting Championship, before moving to the regional class in 2013 and to the national class in 2014.[3]

In 2016, Tsunoda graduated from Honda's Suzuka Circuit Racing School in the advanced formula class and became a member of the Honda Formula Dream Project.[4] In the same year he made his single-seater debut in the F4 Japanese Championship with the Sutekina Racing Team for a one-off event in Suzuka. He claimed his first podium with 2nd in the first race and finished 4th in the second race.

In 2017, Tsunoda started his first full season of single-seater racing in the F4 Japanese Championship while also contesting in the regional East series of the JAF F4 Japanese Championship.[5] Tsunoda won the title of the regional championship while finishing third in the national Formula 4 championship.[6] He contested both championships with Honda.[7]

Tsunoda continued to race in Japanese F4 in 2018 with the Honda Formula Dream Project team. Tsunoda claimed the title amassing seven wins.

Tsunoda racing at the 2019 Spielberg Formula 3 round

With Honda tying up with Red Bull in Formula One, Tsunoda also joined the Red Bull junior team alongside the Honda programme.[2] At the end of 2018, Tsunoda was announced to join Jenzer Motorsport in the newly announced FIA Formula 3 Championship.[8] He finished 9th in the championship with three podiums and a win,[6] scoring all of the Jenzer team's points during the season.

Tsunoda also competed for Motopark in the Euroformula Open Championship, following the cancellation of Formula European Masters.[9] After a second-place finish in the first race at Paul Ricard and achieving third place in the Pau Grand Prix, Tsunoda claimed his maiden championship win in the second race at Hockenheim.[10][11][12]

In the beginning of 2020, Honda announced that Tsunoda will join Carlin to race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.[13] During the 2020 season he took three wins, four pole positions, seven podiums and finished 3rd in the championship with 200 points.[14]

Tsunoda at the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix

Tsunoda replaced Daniil Kvyat and partnered Pierre Gasly at the team for the 2021 season.[18] His car number is 22.

At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Tsunoda finished in ninth place.[19] After the race, Ross Brawn, Formula One's technical director, hailed Tsunoda as "F1's best rookie for years".[20] He crashed in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and went on to finish the race in twelfth place after starting from the back. He qualified sixteenth for the Spanish Grand Prix and later apologised after questioning whether he and teammate Gasly had "the same car".[21] He went on to retire from the race with an electrical failure. Tsunoda reached the third qualifying session (Q3) for the first time at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but then brought out the red flags after crashing. He finished the race seventh. Tsunoda crashed again in qualifying at the French Grand Prix and was forced to start from the pit lane. He reached Q3 again at the Styrian Grand Prix but received a grid penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas.

Tsunoda achieved his best Formula One result up to that point at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He started the race sixteenth, improved to seventh place at the finish line, and was promoted to sixth after Sebastian Vettel's disqualification.[22] He retired from the Dutch Grand Prix with a power unit issue.[23] At the following race, the Italian Grand Prix, he collided with Robert Kubica in sprint qualifying and then failed to start the race due to brake issues.[24]

In the next seven Grands Prix, Tsunoda advanced to Q3 all but once, but was only able to convert one of those into a points finish, placing ninth at the United States Grand Prix.[25] However, in the final race of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he qualified in eighth position; notably, this was the first time all season that he outqualified teammate Pierre Gasly, who was eliminated in Q2.[26] From this position, he went on to finish fourth and gain 12 points, just ahead of Gasly in fifth, thereby improving his best Formula One result thus far. With those points, Tsunoda secured 14th place in the drivers' championship and ended the year on 32 points.[27]

Tsunoda at the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Tsunoda and Gasly were retained by AlphaTauri for the 2022 season.[28] Tsunoda qualified sixteenth and finished eighth at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. A fuel issue prevented him from setting a qualifying time at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix;[29] he then failed to start the race after a power unit failure.[30] At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Tsunoda finished seventh, ahead of teammate Gasly, having qualified sixteenth. He described the race as the best of his Formula One career.[31] His first Q3 appearance of the season came at the Miami Grand Prix and he scored points for the third time in six races at the Spanish Grand Prix, finishing tenth.

A streak of twelve races without scoring points followed. Tsunoda hit the wall in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix and finished the race seventeenth. He was running seventh at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix until he was forced to pit for repairs after a DRS failure. He crashed whilst exiting the pits at the Canadian Grand Prix and collided with Gasly at the British Grand Prix, for which Tsunoda later apologised.[32] He qualified eighth for the French Grand Prix but a first-lap collision with Esteban Ocon resulted in Tsunoda's eventual retirement. At the Dutch Grand Prix, Tsunoda retired with a differential issue. He had stopped at the side of the track and loosened his seatbelts before driving back to the pits, for which he was given his fifth reprimand of the season and therefore a grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix. At that event, he received another penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags in practice. He then crashed out of the Singapore Grand Prix having qualified tenth.

Tsunoda scored a point at the United States Grand Prix where he started nineteenth, gained five places on the first lap and finished tenth.[33] He was running eleventh at the Mexico City Grand Prix but was eliminated in a collision with Daniel Ricciardo. He ended the season seventeenth in the drivers' championship with 12 points to Gasly's 23.

On 22 September 2022, AlphaTauri announced Tsunoda would stay with the team through the 2023 season.[34] Nyck de Vries will replace Alpine-bound Gasly as Tsunoda's new teammate.[35]

* Season still in progress.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^† Driver did not finish the race but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

^‡ Half points were awarded as less than 75% of the scheduled race distance was completed.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

* Season still in progress.