{"id":35375,"date":"2025-06-30T07:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35375"},"modified":"2025-06-30T08:13:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:13:32","slug":"yuki-tsunoda-re-emerges-as-cadillac-option-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/06\/30\/yuki-tsunoda-re-emerges-as-cadillac-option-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda re-emerges as Cadillac option for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the very beginning of the year, LWOS analysed Yuki Tsunoda’s options<\/a>\u00a0ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n

Several teams (including Cadillac) were mentioned as Red Bull alternatives for the 24-year-old. At the time, the Austrian team were showing no signs of promoting him.<\/p>\n

Since then, Tsunoda has of course been promoted to Red Bull. Like others before him, however, the Japanese driver has struggled<\/a>\u00a0alongside Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda’s poor results do not necessarily guarantee Red Bull will replace him in 2026. The last twelve months have shown that constant driver swaps are not the solution for Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n

Still, should Red Bull decide a new teammate for Verstappen is needed, Yuki Tsunoda could have an alternative path to stay in F1.<\/p>\n

Why Cadillac are interested in Yuki Tsunoda<\/h2>\n

In the early weeks of the 2024 season, many teams were interested in Yuki Tsunoda. Audi and Haas<\/a> were among those who expressed interested in offering him a deal.<\/p>\n

Because of Red Bull’s option on his contract, however, he was unable to seriously explore these options.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Yuki Tsunoda in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Peter Fox\/LAT Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The situation is slightly different this year, though, with Tsunoda out of contract for 2026.<\/p>\n

Should the #22 driver feel that continuing at Red Bull is detrimental to his career (or if the team replaces him), he can go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Cadillac is the only team outside of Red Bull with two vacancies for next year.<\/p>\n

A handful of drivers, including Bottas<\/a>, Perez and Zhou, have been linked to the US project .<\/p>\n

Bottas is emerging as the front-runner to be their first signing – although Alpine’s interest in the Mercedes reserve could add a spanner to the works.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Tsunoda could be well-positioned to be selected by Cadillac against some of the drivers mentioned.<\/p>\n

As reported by racingnews365<\/a>, the Red Bull driver is now firmly on the American team’s radar.<\/p>\n

Whilst his Red Bull stint has been immensely difficult, the long list of drivers who experienced a similar fate alongside Verstappen should limit the damage his mid-season move would otherwise inflict to his market value.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda’s impressive record at VCARB still makes him a valuable asset in the market – especially for a new team like Cadillac.<\/p>\n

Only a few months ago, Mario Andretti<\/a> bemoaned that Cadillac had a very limited driver pool to choose from.<\/p>\n

If Tsunoda does not have a future with Christian Horner’s team, he could emerge a welcome opportunity for Graeme Lowdon to explore.<\/p>\n

Alongside an experienced driver like Bottas or Perez, Tsunoda could complete a very competitive line-up in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Sam Bloxham\/LAT Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ever-changing dynamics at Red Bull<\/h4>\n

Inevitably, the 24-year-old’s future is also dependent on how events unfold at Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Considering the number of stories and questions surrounding the Milton Keynes outfit, anticipating what happens next will be difficult.<\/p>\n

Arvid Lindblad’s progression<\/a> complicates things for everyone at Red Bull and VCARB outside of Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Someone will have to be replaced to create space for the highly-rated 17-year-old in 2026. For now, it is unclear who this casualty would be.<\/p>\n

Even Verstappen himself, a source of stability at Red Bull over the last decade, is something of an unknown quantity.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman is relentlessly linked with a move to Mercedes<\/a> – a scenario that becomes increasingly likely as Red Bull lose ground to McLaren.<\/p>\n

Because of these factors, Tsunoda might have to wait before having any assurances of his future.<\/p>\n

Amidst this instability, Tsunoda can take some consolation from the fact other teams are interested in his services.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Peter Fox\/LAT Images (via Red Bull content pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the very beginning of the year, LWOS analysed Yuki Tsunoda’s options\u00a0ahead of 2026. Several teams (including Cadillac) were mentioned as Red Bull alternatives for the 24-year-old. At the time, the Austrian team were showing no signs of promoting him. Since then, Tsunoda has of course been promoted to Red Bull. Like others before him, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":35376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1986,2452,2394],"class_list":["post-35375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-cadillac","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35375"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35395,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35375\/revisions\/35395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}