Japanese
Yuki Tsunoda is a Japanese racing driver whose rapid rise through the FIA junior single-seater ladder carried him from relative obscurity to Formula 1 in barely two seasons. Backed by both the Red Bull Junior Team and Honda, he moved to Europe in 2019 with no prior knowledge of the circuits, yet adapted with striking speed.
Formula 3
Tsunoda contested the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport. After a quiet start — just two points finishes in the opening seven races — he transformed his season, scoring in each of the next seven rounds. The highlight was a run of three consecutive podiums between Spa and Monza, capped by victory in the Italian sprint race. He finished ninth in the standings on 67 points, with three podiums and a win, and notably scored every one of Jenzer's points that year.
Formula 2
For 2020 Tsunoda graduated to FIA Formula 2 with Carlin. He exceeded all expectations as a rookie, taking three wins, seven podiums and four pole positions on his way to third in the championship — the highest-placed first-year driver. That campaign sealed his promotion to Formula 1 for 2021.
After F2/F3
Tsunoda's F2 form earned him a Formula 1 seat, where his single-seater junior career is comprehensively covered elsewhere on F1pedia. His combination of outright pace and aggressive racecraft, first glimpsed in F3 and F2, became his trademark at the top level.