Yuki Tsunoda proved his worth with an 11th-place finish at the Dutch Grand Prix, stepping in at short notice for the injured Isack Hadjar. In a light-hearted tone, he has now made a playful appeal to F1 teams for a 2027 seat.
The Japanese driver's weekend was anything but ordinary. He was relaxing on a beach in Greece when the call from Racing Bulls came on Tuesday, informing him he would race at Zandvoort. Team CEO Peter Bayer had known about Hadjar's wrist injury since the previous Friday, but Tsunoda only got the news days later. Despite the surprise, he insisted he was physically ready, though adapting to the 2026 machinery remained a big question mark.
Remarkably, the adaptation went smoothly. Tsunoda stayed close to teammate Arvid Lindblad's lap times all weekend, qualifying 12th in both sessions and finishing 11th, ahead of Lindblad. "Honestly, I progressed faster than expected. I've only driven four times in eight months since my last race in Abu Dhabi. With that, I did pretty well," he said.
Getting used to the new cars was challenging, especially at an energy-demanding track like Zandvoort. "The hardest part was almost everything: learning deployment, buttons, all procedures are different. Tyre degradation was also very different," Tsunoda explained. "So it was all about adapting, but the team supported me a lot. It's a shame I didn't score points, but I was fighting for the top eight or nine until the last laps."
With this performance, Tsunoda reiterated his desire to return to the F1 grid. "I know what I can do and I've shown it to most of the paddock. With just one race, a couple of sessions, I could fight close to the points," he said. "Teams have to decide if they want me or not, but they should!" he joked. His future is now a hot topic in the paddock.
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