As Honda distances itself from Tsunoda, what are his F1 options?

If Yuki Tsunoda and his new management were hoping to receive a helping hand from Honda as Tsunoda builds a case to remain in Formula 1, the mood music coming from HQ isn’t promising.

As a member of Honda’s driver programme, Tsunoda was fast-tracked through the European junior single-seater ladder, making his F1 debut in 2021 with the team then known as AlphaTauri. At the time it was politically expedient for Red Bull to take a Honda-supported driver since it was trying to keep the manufacturer engaged in F1 after an expensive spend to reach competitiveness – and much bad PR during its abortive comeback with McLaren.

But now the landscape has shifted: Honda is realigning itself with Aston Martin, Red Bull is pivoting back towards building its own engines, albeit with Ford sponsorship, and Tsunoda is entering his fifth season in F1 having failed to convince Red Bull he is worth promoting to partner Max Verstappen in its senior team. And the message to him from Honda is: you’re on your own.

“He [Tsunoda] needs to take action himself,” Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe said in an interview with Japanese Motorsport.com. “I want him to make the best choices for himself.

“He’s now in his fifth year, has the ability, and understands the world of F1 well.

“There’s not much more we can do for him. He needs to solidify his support team, including his manager, and secure the necessary seat. He is a professional, after all.

“Drivers can’t rely on Honda forever. Someone of Tsunoda’s career level needs to think for himself.”

If this doesn’t sound unequivocal enough, Watanabe had already made Honda’s point clear in an earlier press conference: “Tsunoda has a sponsorship agreement with us. He is fundamentally an independent driver, but we support him as a sponsor.”

The end of Honda’s relationship with Red Bull has triggered an extensive pulling-up of the ladders, since Ayumu Iwasa – currently the Racing Bulls F1 reserve driver after bouncing between F2 and Super Formula in recent years – has also been told he needs to manage his own future.

“In theory, there could be opportunities with Aston Martin, but Iwasa is free to make his own career decisions,” clarified Watanabe.

The implication here is that Honda is presuming nothing as it approaches this new relationship, and it certainly doesn’t want to begin its new arrangement with Aston Martin while laden with baggage from the Red Bull years.

Takuma Sato, the Indy 500 winner who entered F1 in 2002 with Honda’s support and is now an HRC executive, said as much recently.

“Yuki has nothing to do with Honda anymore,” he said. “I want him to go to Red Bull, Mercedes, or Ferrari as soon as possible. If he doesn’t move on, it blocks the path for younger drivers.

“He has made it this far, so there’s no need for Honda or HRC to step in and negotiate for him anymore.”

Not that there are any immediate vacancies at Aston Martin anyway, since Fernando Alonso is contracted until the end of 2026, Lance Stroll will occupy the other seat for as long as his father owns the team, and the reserve driver role is the domain of 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich. The only opportunity that might open up – ‘in theory’ – is if Drugovich parlays his IMSA relationship with Cadillac into an F1 drive when that manufacturer joins F1 next year. But that’s also a destination Tsunoda will have in mind.

Aside from that, there are no seats at F1’s top table unless Liam Lawson fails spectacularly at Red Bull. The midfield is also well catered for: Williams, Sauber/Audi and Haas have no reason to change their existing line-ups and Alpine already has Franco Colapinto ready to replace Jack Doohan if the need arises.

Is a sixth season at Racing Bulls now Tsunoda’s most realistic prospect apart from Cadillac? Perhaps – but, since Red Bull’s junior programme is stuttering into gear again after being caught short recently, there’s no guarantee of him continuing there either.

Red Bull ‘driver advisor’ Helmut Marko told our Dutch Motorsport.com colleagues Tsunoda’s new team-mate Isack Hadjar had done enough already to make the senior stakeholders “happy”. Meanwhile, the highly rated Arvid Lindblad will make his F2 debut this year and could easily be in the hunt for a 2026 seat.

“He [Tsunoda] has a young, fast team-mate next to him and it’s his own future, you know, so he has to motivate himself,” said Marko.

“If he is doing well, then there is a future. If not, then maybe there’s no more chance in F1 for him.”

Additional reporting by Kenichi Tanaka, Kan Namekawa and Ronald Vording