Tsunoda, 24, has shown good speed in his Racing Bulls car so far and lost out on a points-scoring finish when he had to pit because of a front wing issue late in the Chinese Grand Prix. But don’t expect that speed to translate to race-winning speed in Japan. Tsunoda is +4000 to win the race at BetMGM and is the No. 7 favorite.

Red Bull new recruit Yuki Tsunoda has been told to get as close to his world champion teammate Max Verstappen as possible at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend and he certainly delivered in the first practice session on Friday.

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.

Two races into the 2025 Formula 1 season Red Bull shocked the paddock, demoting Liam Lawson after picking him to replace Sergio Pérez. Lawson heads back to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda,

Yuki Tsunoda finally has his promotion at Red Bull. He was elevated last week and Liam Lawson was demoted to Red Bull’s second team — Racing Bulls — after failing to score points in the season’s first two races.

Sergio Pérez has addressed Red Bull's strategy to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda, starting from this weekend's Japanese GP

Yuki Tsunoda has expressed his excitement ahead of his Red Bull Racing debut at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Free Practice session 1 marked the beginning of Yuki Tsunoda’s first weekend in his new Red Bull Racing seat. Tsunoda was able to keep up with Verstappen and ended the session less than three-tenths off his four-time world champion teammate.

In a second practice session that was dogged by no fewer than four red flags, New Zealand’s Liam Lawson can at the very least take pride in clocking a faster lap time than his senior Red Bull teammates at Suzuka.