Yuki Tsunoda handed route out of Red Bull misery as F1 star linked with unexpected move

Yuki Tsunoda's dream promotion to Red Bull has morphed into a living nightmare, but the Japanese racer may have a route out of the trouble via Cadillac. The 25-year-old has reportedly been named as a target for the new F1 squad, who are weighing up their driver line-ups for their inaugural season on the grid. Tsunoda was called into the Red Bull team to replace the floundering Liam Lawson after just two race weekends, but since completing the transition to Milton Keynes, his form has nosedived.

His nine races alongside Max Verstappen have produced just three top-10 finishes, none of which have been higher than ninth. With the halfway mark of the season upon us, both Lawson and Racing Bulls team-mate Isack Hadjar have more points on the board than Tsunoda, who is still struggling to coax speed from the RB21. More worrying still, his performance in Austria on Sunday was one of his worst in 2025.

"To be honest, the move on Franco [Colapinto, which earned him a 10-second time penalty] was a bit unnecessary," he said after exiting the cockpit. "I could probably wait one more lap [to attack], but that was a pretty bad move for myself.

"Otherwise, the pace itself was pretty poor as well - not sure what I'm doing wrong, to be honest. I have to look through [it] harder, but to be honest, it's really, really hard to find the reason for what I'm doing so wrong to drive this slow."

Tsunoda is aware that his performances are impacting his chances of landing a spot on the F1 grid for 2025. With Hadjar's consistency turning heads and Lawson on the road to recovery, his seat at Red Bull is looking uncertain, even if Christian Horner has assured him that he will not be ousted mid-season.

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Fortunately, an escape route may be emerging. According to RacingNews365, Tsunoda is a potential candidate to fill one of the two Cadillac seats for 2026. The American squad have been linked with a number of drivers, experienced and young, for their maiden F1 campaign.

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have emerged as the frontrunners as experienced heads on the grid, but Felipe Drugovich, Frederik Vesti, Zhou Guanyu and Colton Herta have all been touted as alternative candidates.

Tsunoda's track record makes him a compelling candidate. Unlike Bottas and Perez, at 25, the Kanagawa-born star has his best racing years ahead of him while also having over 100 race weekends under his belt.