Yuki Tsunoda faces a daunting return to Formula 1 at Zandvoort this weekend, with no prior experience of the 2026-spec Racing Bulls car and just one hour of practice due to the sprint format. F1 TV analysts Jolyon Palmer and Alex Brundle have labelled the task "insane."
The Japanese driver's surprise comeback comes after Isack Hadjar was ruled out with a wrist injury. As a result, Liam Lawson steps up to Red Bull, and Tsunoda, the reserve driver, fills the vacancy at Racing Bulls.
Palmer highlighted the enormity of the situation. "The mental side of it is going to be insane for him," he said on the F1 TV Weekend Warm-Up show. "The rest of the drivers had three tests before we had the first race, bar Williams, who didn't turn up for the first one. But they had so much time to figure out energy management, the different driving styles."
Adding to the complexity, it's a sprint weekend, meaning only one practice session before Friday afternoon's sprint qualifying. "Yuki's got to do that in one hour," Palmer added. "He's driven some TPC, so that's old cars, but he hasn't driven this one. And they are so different compared to the last car that he'd raced."
"So to figure that out and then head into a sprint. You're at Zandvoort where you've got walls and gravel traps lining the circuit. It's really, really a big test. So if he gets near the points, I will be impressed with Yuki," Palmer concluded.
Brundle also pointed out the physical challenge. "I hope Yuki Tsunoda's been keeping it up in the gym because it's eight and a half months since he last started a grand prix and this is not an easy track physically," he said. "I'm sure he is absolutely ready to jump in the car as a reserve driver for Red Bull, but it's going to be a tough weekend to get your head around the systems and also the physicality of these cars."
With all these constraints, Tsunoda's performance at Zandvoort will be closely watched. Can he adapt quickly and score points? We'll find out in the sprint and the main race.
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