Born in Sagamihara and raised in Tokyo, Tsunoda began competitive kart racing aged nine. Supported by Honda since 2016 through the , Tsunoda graduated to junior formulae the same year. He won his first full championship at the Formula Beat in 2017, winning the F4 Japanese Championship the next season. In , he progressed to FIA Formula 3 with Jenzer and became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team, before finishing third in his rookie season of FIA Formula 2 in with Carlin.
Tsunoda debuted in Formula One for AlphaTauri in , using a Honda powertrain alongside Pierre Gasly; he finished a career-best fourth at the that year. Tsunoda retained his seat at AlphaTauri in and , partnering Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo in the latter. He remained at the team for the season as they re-branded to Racing Bulls, before his promotion to senior team Red Bull for the onwards in .
Tsunoda qualified ninth in Silverstone, and made a masterclass charge, passing Christian Lundgaard on the last lap for third place. Another sprint race disappointment followed, as he was taken out by Callum Ilott on the opening lap. During the second Silverstone round, Tsunoda qualified tenth and moved up to sixth for the feature race. In the sprint race, he remained in third for most of the race, until lap 19 of 21, where the two Prema Racing drivers ahead collided and promoted Tsunoda for his maiden win. Post-race, Tsunoda stated that "he had the potential for P1 even without late Prema crash". Tsunoda qualified sixth in Barcelona. Tsunoda would briefly lead on lap 30 after a safety car restart due to the frontrunners pitting again, but they caught up on fresher tyres, including fellow compatriot Nobuharu Matsushita, and he dropped to fourth. He again finished fourth in the sprint race.
Tsunoda took his second pole of the year in Spa-Francorchamps. After a slow pit stop during the feature race, Tsunoda would fall behind Nikita Mazepin but fought back to him by lap 20. Mazepin would push Tsunoda wide on the penultimate lap while defending, which earned the Russian a five-second time penalty. Tsunoda would be promoted to the win having finished second on the road. In the sprint race,Tsunoda finished in ninth as a penalty for hitting Ilott at the start saw him drop out of the points due to a time penalty. He secured second in qualifying for Monza. A slow start in the feature race dropped him to fifth, Tsunoda made it up by crossing the line in fourth place. In the sprint race, mechanical woes saw him out early. In Mugello, he qualified 11th and finished eighth on the road in the feature race, but was penalised for colliding with Dan Ticktum, dropping to 16th. His disappointing weekend continued in the sprint race, as he damaged his front wing hitting the back of Felipe Drugovich on the fourth last lap, and was forced to pit which dropped him to 20th.
In Sochi, Tsunoda claimed his third pole ahead of teammate Daruvala. He settled for second place after being overtaken by Mick Schumacher, although he would win a battle over Ilott for runners-up position on the last lap. In the sprint race, Tsunoda finished in sixth. Tsunoda sat third in the standings heading into the two-month break before the final two rounds, 44 points behind leader Schumacher. In Bahrain, Tsunoda spun out on his flying lap, which left him down in last. He made an incredible charge on the alternate strategy, charging to sixth. In the sprint race, Tsunoda suffered a puncture on lap 1 cause by contact with Marcus Armstrong which ruined his race, ending in 15th. He took pole for the second Bahrain round. Tsunoda had another feature race battle with Mazepin, but the Japanese driver would win out and take another victory. In the sprint race, a last lap charge passing Ticktum would seal second place. Overall, Tsunoda took three wins, four pole positions, seven podiums and finished third in the championship with 200 points. He was the best-placed rookie and scored more points than any other driver across the feature races.
At the season-opening , Tsunoda qualified 13th, despite being second fastest in Q1. He finished in ninth place, having overtaken Lance Stroll on the last lap. After the race, Ross Brawn, Formula One's technical director, hailed Tsunoda as "F1's best rookie for years". He targeted an appearance in the third qualifying session (Q3) for the next race, the , but crashed in qualifying and started the race from the back. He made his way to ninth place before the race was red-flagged, but spun after the restart and finished 13th. He qualified 16th for the and later apologised after questioning whether he and teammate Gasly had "the same car". He went on to retire from the race with an electrical failure, his first F1 retirement.
He reached the Q3 for the first time at the , but crashed in the session, causing a red flag. He finished the race seventh, his best result so far, despite being "mad" after the race due to losing two positions at the red flag restart. Tsunoda crashed again in qualifying at the , was forced to start from the pit lane and finished 13th. He reached Q3 again at the , qualifying eighth, but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas. He finished in tenth place despite radio miscommunications. He again reached Q3 at the and achieved his best qualifying result thus far with seventh. He opted for a two-stop strategy and received penalties for crossing the pit entry line, failing to score points with a 12th-place finish. He secured a point with 10th place at the , having started 16th and benefited from a late pit stop from Sergio Pérez. He again qualified 16th at the , but avoided the lap 1 collisions and gained from Sebastian Vettel's disqualification to be classified sixth in the race, improving his highest F1 result.
Tsunoda qualified 15th at the , but he would fail to finish the race as he retired in the pits with a power unit issue. At the following race, the , he collided with Robert Kubica in sprint qualifying and then failed to start the race due to brake issues. In the next seven Grands Prix, Tsunoda advanced to Q3 all but once. During the , he held back Lewis Hamilton for numerous laps but a spin later cost him a chance of points and he finished 14th. He started 10th at the , passed teammate Gasly and finished ninth, his first points since the summer break. He qualified ninth for the , but was required to start at the back due to taking additional power unit elements. He caused controversy for potentially impeding the Red Bull drivers, but was not penalised. In the race, he was eliminated on the opening lap in a collision with Esteban Ocon. A collision with Lance Stroll at the resulted in a time penalty and a 15th-place finish. He qualified in the top ten at the Qatar and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, but failed to score points in either. He apologised for his role in a collision with Sebastian Vettel at the latter. He qualified eighth in the final race of the season, the ; notably, this was the first time all season that he outqualified teammate Gasly, who was eliminated in Q2. From this position, Tsunoda finished fourth and gained 12 points, his best ever result.
Tsunoda placed 14th in the drivers' championship with 32 points to Gasly's 110.
A streak of twelve races without scoring points followed. Tsunoda hit the wall in qualifying for the , but manage to get into Q2 and qualify 11th. However, he finished the race 17th. Tsunoda qualified a brilliant eighth at the . He was running in seventh place until he was forced to pit for repairs after a DRS failure, which led him to finish down in a disappointing 13th place. After starting from the back due to an engine penalty, he crashed whilst exiting the pits at the . He had further woes at the , first breaking his front wing during the lap 1 chaos and later collided with Gasly on lap 10. Tsunoda finished 13th, later apologised as he ended in 14th place. He qualified eighth for the . However, a first-lap collision with Esteban Ocon resulted in Tsunoda's eventual retirement after a few laps. Having qualified 16th for the , Tsunoda would struggle in the race, on route to 19th place, two laps down.
At the , Tsunoda started from the pit lane but managed to charge to 13th place. At the , Tsunoda started ninth, but retired with a differential issue. He had stopped at the side of the track and loosened his seatbelts before driving back to the pits, for which he was given his fifth reprimand of the season and therefore a grid penalty for the . At that event, he received two penalty points and another grid penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags in practice. He finished 14th. At the , Tsunoda qualified tenth. He would lose two places after a slight mistake, before crashing out of the race on his own on lap 35. At his first home race during the , Tsunoda finished the race in 13th place, ahead of teammate Gasly.
Tsunoda scored a point at the where he started 19th, gained five places on the first lap and finished 10th. This ended his long streak of not scoring points. He was running 11th at the but was eliminated in a collision with Daniel Ricciardo. At the , an unusual glitch in the safety car system meant that Tsunoda drove to 17th place, the only driver who was lapped during the race. At the final race in Abu Dhabi, Tsunoda missed out on points with 11th place.
Tsunoda ended the season 17th in the drivers' championship with 12 points to Gasly's 23.
He reached Q3 for the first time in 2023 at the . Contact with teammate De Vries in the sprint caused him to hit a wall and eventually retire. He finished tenth in the race to score another point. At the Tsunoda again finished 11th, closely behind Kevin Magnussen, after starting 17th. In the he advanced to Q3 and was running ninth when he developed brake issues, eventually dropping to 15th. He finished ninth at the but received a penalty for forcing Zhou Guanyu off the track, dropping him outside the points. Tsunoda later described the penalty as "ridiculous" and accused Zhou of pretending to be forced off. At the , his front wing broke in a collision with Esteban Ocon and he received multiple penalties post-race for track limits infringements.
From the , Tsunoda was partnered with Daniel Ricciardo after De Vries was dropped by the team. He finished the race 15th, two places behind Ricciardo. He ran as high as sixth during the early laps of the and finished tenth, scoring his first points since April. Tsunoda was joined at AlphaTauri by Liam Lawson from the onwards after Ricciardo broke his hand. He ended the race behind Lawson in 15th place, having run well in the top 10 during the early stages in a dry-wet race. Tsunoda qualified 11th at the but failed to take the start as his engine failed during the formation lap. He was then eliminated on lap one of the with damage from a collision with Sergio Pérez. Tsunoda made it to Q3 and qualified ninth at his home race during the , much to the delight of the Japanese fans. However, he went backwards on race day as he fell out of the points to 12th place at the end, finishing behind teammate Lawson.
At the , Tsunoda benefitted a position to tenth place after Fernando Alonso retired, and then pitted late on to set his first fastest lap. Having scored his first points since the summer break, this was further aided after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, promoting Tsunoda to eighth. He started from the back at the after taking additional power unit elements. After surprisingly made his points midway through the race, his charge halted when he was tagged in a spin by Oscar Piastri, and was left to rue what could have been in 12th. In Brazil, Tsunoda was knocked of Q1 in 16th. However, in the sprint, his pace was much more promising, finishing sixth after an overtake on Hamilton. In the race, Tsunoda advanced to tenth early on at the start, but despite a tiny mistake, he was able to secure ninth place. At the season ending , Tsunoda qualified in a career-best sixth. Having tried an ambitious one-stop strategy, he led a race for the first time ever. It would not pay off as he hoped, holding off Hamilton for eighth place. Despite unable to help AlphaTauri overhaul Williams Racing for P7 in the constructors, he earned Driver Of The Day in the season finale.
Tsunoda finished the 2023 season 14th in the standings, with 17 points.
An unlucky followed, as Tsunoda was tipped into a spin by Magnussen following a safety car restart, which caused the former to retire. The sprint at the saw Tsunoda finish eighth, securing a point. He followed it up with another seventh place in the main race, even finishing in front of Mercedes' George Russell. More points finishes followed from his Q3 appearances, placing tenth and eighth at the Emilia Romagna and Monaco Grands Prix respectively. He continued his strong qualifying performances with eighth in Canada. Having run close to teammate Ricciardo, he spun towards the conclusion of the race, leading him to finish in 14th. Struggles followed where Tsunoda failed to score points at the Spanish and s, despite RB introducing upgrades. Starting from 13th at the , Tsunoda took advantage of the inclement weather and secured tenth place, then he backed that result up by finishing ninth at the next race in Hungary despite a big crash in Q3. He was hit with an engine penalty that confined him to the back of the grid at the , and struggled with pace to only finish 16th.
A tough outing at the followed starting 12th, where a wrong pit strategy would soon unravel his race and he eventually finished down in 17th. This was followed by back-to-back retirements at the Italian and s, owing to collisions by Nico Hülkenberg and Lance Stroll through no fault of his own. Starting from the , Tsunoda would be partnered by Liam Lawson as he replaced Ricciardo. Qualifying 11th for the race, it would be scruffy for him, being jumped by Lawson in the pitstops and later spinning on his own, eventually finishing in 14th place. A frustrating weekend in followed, crashing out in qualifying and being taken out by colliding rearwards on the opening lap by Alex Albon. Tsunoda got his best qualifying position to date at the , securing third in a rain-hit session. Driving a solid race early on, Tsunoda pitted for wet tyres and was making up ground rapidly but lost out to a red flag brought out by Franco Colapinto, where drivers could make a free pit stop. He eventually finished in seventh place, benefitting a position from Oscar Piastri's penalty.
The week before the , Tsunoda was interrogated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Harry Reid International Airport for several hours whilst attempting to enter the country. He qualified ninth in Las Vegas, finishing in the same position after a battle with Nico Hülkenberg. At the , Tsunoda finished 16th in the sprint and 13th in the Grand Prix, on a weekend where RB lacked pace. Starting 11th for the , Tsunoda suffered an anti-stall during the start where he dropped to the back, and could not recover much from there as he finished 12th.
Tsunoda finished the season 12th in the drivers' championship with 30 points, his highest ever placing in Formula 1 to date.
A heavy crash in qualifying at Imola Circuit in Emilia Romagna forced Tsunoda to start from the pit lane and run an outdated RB21 for the following five Grands Prix; he recovered to tenth. He proceeded to score no points over those five weekends, where he finished: seventeenth in Monaco, having qualified twelfth before a collision with Gasly; thirteenth in Spain, having qualified last; twelfth in Canada, having started last after a grid penalty for overtaking under a red flag; sixteenth in Austria, having been penalised for colliding with Franco Colapinto; and last of the finishers in Britain, again penalised for a collision with Oliver Bearman. He received an updated specification for the wet–dry , qualifying seventh before a belated team decision to switch to slick tyres dropped him to thirteenth. He qualified sixteenth and finished seventeenth in Hungary, where he reduced his performance deficit to Verstappen as Red Bull struggled. In the Netherlands, he qualified twelfth and finished ninth—his first points finish in eight Grands Prix—amidst throttle issues. He qualified sixth and finished sixth in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, his highest while with Red Bull, scoring eight points.
Shin-Tokyo NIC Cup Series – Yamaha Cadets Open | 1st | |
JAF Junior Karting Championship – FP-Jr Cadets Class | 6th | |
Shin-Tokyo NIC Cup Series – Yamaha Cadets Open | 1st | |
JAF Junior Karting Championship – FP-Jr Cadets Class | 5th | |
Twin Ring Motegi Karting Race Series – X30 | 1st | |
Super FJ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1st | ||
F4 Japanese Championship | Sutekina Racing Team | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 30 | 16th |
JAF Formula 4 – East Series | Marusan JSS | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 115 | 1st |
JAF Formula 4 – West Series | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 7th | |
FIA Formula 3 Championship | Jenzer Motorsport | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 67 | 9th |
Macau Grand Prix | Hitech Racing | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11th | |
FIA Formula 2 Championship | Carlin | 24 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 200 | 3rd |
Oracle Red Bull Racing |
Season still in progress.
2016 !nowrap | Sutekina Racing Team | OKA 1 | OKA 2 | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Sportsland SUGO | Sportsland SUGO | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Suzuka Circuit | Suzuka Circuit | MOT 1 | MOT 2 | MOT 3 ! 16th ! 30 | ||
2017 !nowrap | Honda Formula Dream Project | OKA 1 | OKA 2 | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Autopolis | Autopolis | Sportsland SUGO | Sportsland SUGO | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Suzuka Circuit | Suzuka Circuit | MOT 1 | MOT 2 !style="background:#FFDF9F;" | 3rd !style="background:#FFDF9F;" | 173 |
2018 !nowrap | Honda Formula Dream Project | OKA 1 | OKA 2 | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Suzuka Circuit | Suzuka Circuit | Fuji Speedway | Fuji Speedway | Sportsland SUGO | Sportsland SUGO | Autopolis | Autopolis | MOT 1 | MOT 2 !style="background:#FFFFBF;" | 1st !style="background:#FFFFBF;" | 245 |
2019 !nowrap | Motopark Academy | LEC 1 | LEC 2 | PAU 1 | PAU 2 | Hockenheimring | Hockenheimring | SPA 1 | SPA 2 | Hungaroring | Hungaroring | RBR 1 | RBR 2 | SIL 1 | SIL 2 | CAT 1 | CAT 2 | MNZ 1 | MNZ 2 ! 4th ! 151 |
!nowrap Jenzer Motorsport | CAT FEA | CAT SPR | LEC FEA | LEC SPR | RBR FEA | RBR SPR | SIL FEA | SIL SPR | HUN FEA | HUN SPR | SPA FEA | SPA SPR | MNZ FEA | MNZ SPR | SOC FEA | SOC SPR ! 9th ! 67 |
2020 !nowrap | M2 Competition | HIG 1 | HIG 2 | HIG 3 | Teretonga Park | Teretonga Park | Teretonga Park | HMP 1 | HMP 2 | HMP 3 | PUK 1 | PUK 2 | PUK 3 | ! 4th ! 257 |
!nowrap Carlin | RBR FEA | RBR SPR | RBR FEA | RBR SPR | HUN FEA | HUN SPR | SIL FEA | SIL SPR | SIL FEA | SIL SPR | CAT FEA | CAT SPR | SPA FEA | SPA SPR | MNZ FEA | MNZ SPR | MUG FEA | MUG SPR | SOC FEA | SOC SPR | BHR FEA | BHR SPR | BHR FEA | BHR SPR !style="background:#FFDF9F;" | 3rd !style="background:#FFDF9F;" | 200 |
!nowrapScuderia AlphaTauri Honda !nowrap | AlphaTauri AT02 !nowrap | Honda RA621H 1.6 V6 Turbocharger | ! ! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
!nowrapScuderia AlphaTauri !nowrap | AlphaTauri AT03 !nowrap | Red Bull RBPTH001 1.6 V6 Turbocharger | ! ! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
!nowrapScuderia AlphaTauri !nowrap | AlphaTauri AT04 !nowrap | Honda RBPT RBPTH001 1.6 V6 Turbocharger | ! ! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
!nowrapVisa Cash App RB F1 Team !nowrap | Racing Bulls VCARB 01 !nowrap | Honda RBPT RBPTH002 1.6 V6 Turbocharger | ! ! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
!nowrapVisa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team !nowrap | Racing Bulls VCARB 02 !rowspan=2 nowrap | Honda RBPT RBPTH003 1.6 V6 Turbocharger | ! rowspan=2 * ! rowspan=2 * | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Season still in progress.
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