“I plan to nail it down”: Yuki Tsunoda opens up on his mindset ahead of 2025 F1 season

VCARB's Yuki Tsunoda expects to "nail it down" in the 2025 F1 season through consistent improvement in performances as he heads into the fifth season with the team. He further mentioned that he would want to keep his momentum up from 2024 where he displayed considerate improvement.

Tsunoda made his F1 debut with AlphaTauri (now VCARB) in the 2021 season and has continued with the team since. Being part of the Red Bull Racing family, he has the great opportunity to be promoted as an RBR driver, however, that is yet to happen.

As mentioned, he has shown considerable improvement each season, scoring points and keeping the team competitive in the mid-field. Heading into 2025, he set his goals straight as he prioritized consistency and better communication.

"I am hoping that my fifth season in Formula One will be an extension of how the past years have gone, always making progress," he said (via SBNation). "I plan to nail it down even more, to be a more complete driver, especially in two areas - aiming to improve how I communicate and to perform more consistently. I’d say that applies not just to how I tackle the races, but also outside of the actual racing itself."

Yuki Tsunoda added that he would at least want to keep his momentum from last year heading into this season considering his improvement in the 2024 F1 season, scoring more consistently than he had previously.

"At the very least, I expect to start this season where I ended the last one. By the end of last year, I had a stronger mindset and had more control than at the beginning of the season. After that, I want to be even more focused and work on improving the small margins."

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VCARB team principal praises Yuki Tsunoda's positive trajectory

Laurent Mekies, VCARB's team principal, recently shared a very positive outlook on Yuki Tsunoda. As mentioned, he had a massive improvement last year with more consistent finishes that helped the team climb up to the eighth position in the final standings.

Mekies said he is "excited" looking at their driver lineup this year.

"I’m super excited about our driver line-up," Mekies said (via SI). "Yuki made a very big step forward last year. He really surprised us with the progress he made in terms of raw speed as well as his technical qualities. Last season, it’s fair to say he joined the ranks of the very good drivers."

Yuki Tsunoda is set to partner Isack Hadjar, who is set to replace Liam Lawson. The latter was picked by Red Bull Racing to drive alongside Max Verstappen this season after they terminated Sergio Perez's contract.

Hadjar is a rookie who competed in the FIA Formula 2 World Championship last year with Campos Racing, clinching four Feature Race wins and finishing the championship in second place.