I'll believe it when RedBull actually releases a statement. Everyone was sure Checo was gonna get canned last summer as well, and Alpine was sure they signed Piastri

It's 99% happening.

I wonder if this is a case of Lawson being out out or just a case of putting Yuki in to see if it makes any difference. Eg. Yuki gets the next 3 races and they'll decide who stays on.

Knowing Red Bull it'll be a musical chair and Hadjar will be in the car for the 6th race and then Colapinto will show up by the summer break before Lawson gets another shot due to doing a great job at Racing Bulls.

Pretty big risk for Yuki as well if he can’t drive it either

^ Agreed, there's no guarantee that Yuki can calm the beast either. What if Yuki refuses to swap teams?

Yuki is probably out of a seat next year as well since the Honda partnership ended. Might as well take the risk and see if he can get into Q3 at RBR

^ exactly, its yuki's last chance to have a drive next year. Honda dumping their pockets to make it happen. It would be hilarious if Lawson is faster in the whitebull.

Rich

Kym Illman reported on TikTok that Honda pays $10m (EUR?) to Yuki's seat at Racing Bulls and they offered another $10m during the offseason for the RB seat. Apparently Red Bull went back to Honda either before or after Shanghai and asked Honda to pony up for Yuki and Honda said they'd pay up only if Yuki's in the seat for Suzuka thus this switch happening now.

Clown show at RB.

Imagine Yuki gets the RB seat for Suzuka and does worse than he would've in the RB2. Honda out 20M... :badpokerface:

Yuki to Red Bull confirmed by Red Bull Racing instagram and VCARB

Will the RB21 bury another career?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHslFQmM...R6Njd3emNuaA==

Good luck Yuki. RBR seat 2 has eaten many people alive

Others are saying it's a win win for Yuki. If he performs well, it'll be years of vindication for being overlooked by Red Bull for other drivers

If he fails, it merely reinforces the point that the Red Bull is secretly a POS and is only made to be driven well by Max.

Dutch journalist Erik van Haren apparently has reported that Max didn't seem happy with the decision to replace Liam, mostly since it seems that RB still thinks its only a driver problem and can be magically fixed with 1 Driver swap, instead of a design problem that even Max himself is not happy with.

I dunno.. this season has been some of the best we’ve seen Yuki driving. I’ve never really been too sold on him figured skill wise he’s always been a bottom half driver but his first two races this season have really impressed me

If you go to RBR and fail I don’t think it’s an automatic he’s going to get another seat

I think the narrative around Yuki has always been worse than his performance - he's only ever been beaten by Gasly and that was early Yuki. Since then he's destroyed de Vries and beat Lawson and Riccardo fair and square.

He's definitely bottom half but I'd say he compares well now to Ocon, Gasly, and Hulk.

I can't even imagine the pressure Yuki must be feeling.

Being asked to drive what is arguably the most difficult car in F1 to drive, in the seat with the most pressure, with the entire team leaning on you for points to have a chance for the constructors....

Doing it all for the first time at your HOME RACE with an entire country idolizing you.

Holy moly.

Anyone ever gone to the Japanese GP?

A group of us are interested in going next year, I guess I should start prepping to buy tickets etc now?

I think it didn’t sell out even this year form other friend talking about it. Apparently it’s quite difficult to get to the track from anywhere and there’s no accommodations at the track.

I want Yuki to do well.... i really want him to, i don't care about the rest of the race today, just want to see him top of the pack..... please please please

Easier to go to Turkey.

I went in 2019. Stayed in Osaka and took a train to the circuit in the morning(1.5hrs ish) 1 train, hassle free.

At the train station, there are dozens of F1 Suzuka bound charter busses waiting. Although the lines were massive it moved relatively quick. Wasn't much of a hassle. Of course if you decide to stay in Nagoya it would be a bit easier closer.

I would recommend putting aside the entire day for it.

So probably go qualifying and the race and that’s the whole two days. 1 hour isn’t so bad but yea the track is further out than I thought

Yea its not so bad. I also scheduled it so I went from Osaka > F1 > Tokyo, so it was on the way. Kind of saves a bit of travel time.

WHAO max!

Lol Tsunoda out qualified by Lawson. That red bull really must be a shitbox that only Max is capable of driving at the limit

Ridiculous lap from Max, that Red Bull was nowhere all weekend.

Glad Tsunoda made it into Q2, seems like the prep in Q2 wasn't the greatest, he ran slower in Q2 than his lap in Q1. But up until then he exceeded expectations by being within around 3-tenths to Max.

I find it endearing how much love Jacques, Palmer and Hinch give Tsunoda thru the entire broadcast.

I haven't read any updates yet but super curious what the issue was with Hadjar. Was he sitting on his balls or something lol

Edit: yeah it was Isack's sack

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/co...g_with_hadjar/