Yuki Tsunoda Age 2026: How Old Is the F1 Star at 26?

Last updated: November 14, 2026  ·  By Nathan Cole

Yuki Tsunoda is 26 years old. He was born on May 11, 2000, in Sagamihara, Japan, and turned 26 on May 11, 2026 — the same day he appeared at the Velocity Invitational at Sonoma Raceway as a guest driver. He is the first Formula 1 driver born in the 21st century, a Red Bull junior who reached the senior team in 2025 and lost the seat at the end of that year, and in 2026 he is a Red Bull reserve driver who came back to race for Racing Bulls in August when Isack Hadjar was injured. His estimated net worth is $5 million, and at 26 he is fighting for a future in a sport that has no full-time seat waiting for him in 2027.

The age question follows Tsunoda because his age has always been the story. He was 20 when he debuted in Formula 1, the youngest driver on the grid and the first born after the year 2000. He was 25 when Red Bull finally promoted him to the senior team, and 25 when the team dropped him again nine months later. Now he is 26, a reserve driver with 110 Grands Prix behind him, and Honda — the company that has backed him since he was a teenager — is publicly urging him to keep fighting for a place in Formula 1. This profile answers the age question properly, then covers the career the number belongs to: the karting years, the junior titles, the AlphaTauri seasons, the Red Bull promotion and the drop, the 2026 comeback, and the 2027 decision that is still open.

Two stale claims need clearing up first. Pages that list Tsunoda as 25 were written before May 11, 2026, his 26th birthday. And pages that still call him a Red Bull race driver are out of date: he lost the Red Bull seat at the end of 2025 and spent 2026 as the team’s reserve driver, racing for Racing Bulls from August after Hadjar’s injury. The facts below are dated, sourced, and named.

Yuki Tsunoda Age 2026: The Short Answer

Yuki Tsunoda is 26 years old. He was born on May 11, 2000, in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan, and turned 26 on May 11, 2026. He is 5 ft 3 in (159 cm) tall, the shortest driver on the Formula 1 grid, and he races with the car number 22. He debuted in Formula 1 in 2021 with AlphaTauri at the age of 20, the first driver born in the 21st century to race in the sport. He was promoted to Red Bull Racing during 2025, lost the seat at the end of that year, and in 2026 he is a Red Bull reserve driver who returned to racing for Racing Bulls in August when Isack Hadjar was injured. He has entered 110 Grands Prix, his best finish is fourth place at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and his estimated net worth is $5 million. On November 7, 2026, Honda urged him to keep fighting for a place in Formula 1 after he cancelled a planned IndyCar test, and as of November 2026 he has no full-time seat for 2027.

The number that defines him is 2000. He was born in the first year of the new millennium, and when he debuted in 2021 he became the first driver in Formula 1 history born in the 2000s — a generational marker that followed him through every junior category and into the senior team. The second number is 110: the Grands Prix he had entered by the end of 2025, a veteran’s total for a driver who is still only 26. The third is 2027, the year with no seat attached to it yet. Those three numbers are the age story in miniature. The rest of this profile is how he got them, and what he does with the year that has no seat in it.

Early Life: Sagamihara, a Racing Father, and Karts at Nine

Yuki Tsunoda was born on May 11, 2000, in Sagamihara, the third most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, after Yokohama and Kawasaki. His father, Nobuaki Tsunoda, was a racing driver, and his mother is Minako Tsunoda. The household ran on motorsport the way other households run on football: the father raced, the son watched, and the karting started early. The Velocity Invitational release that invited him to Sonoma in 2026 puts his karting start at nine years old, racing karts in Tokyo as a boy with a father who knew the circuits and a family that organised itself around the weekends at the track.

The karting years were the apprenticeship, and they were short. He moved through the Japanese junior ranks fast enough that Honda noticed him as a teenager and brought him into its driver programme, the backing that would carry him to Europe and then to Formula 1. The Honda connection is the thread that runs through the whole career: the company spotted him, funded him, placed him, and in November 2026 — when the Formula 1 door looked closed — it was Honda’s president, Koji Watanabe, who told the press that Tsunoda should keep fighting for a place in the sport. The relationship is twenty years old now, and it is the reason he is still in the conversation at 26.

The Junior Years: Japanese F4, F3, and Third in F2

Tsunoda won the Japanese Formula 4 championship in 2018, his first full season in single-seaters, and the title put him on the European ladder. He raced in FIA Formula 3 in 2019, then stepped up to Formula 2 in 2020 with Carlin, where he finished third in the standings with three wins — the result that earned him the Formula 1 seat. He was 20 years old, and the third-place finish in his rookie F2 season was the fastest rise through the junior categories of any Japanese driver in a generation.

The junior record matters to the age story because it explains the debut. Red Bull did not sign him as a project. It signed him as a driver who had won in every category he entered and finished third in F2 in his first year, and it put him straight into Formula 1 at 20. The speed of the rise set the expectations for everything after it: a driver who climbs that fast is expected to keep climbing, and when the climb stops — as it did at Red Bull in 2025 — the questions start. He was 20 when he arrived. He is 26 now, and the junior titles are six years behind him.

The F1 Debut: AlphaTauri, 2021, and the First Driver of the 2000s

Tsunoda made his Formula 1 debut with AlphaTauri in 2021, at the age of 20, alongside Pierre Gasly. The debut made him the first driver born in the 21st century to race in Formula 1, and the first Japanese driver on the grid in seven years. He scored points on his debut in Bahrain, finishing ninth, and his best result of the season came at the finale in Abu Dhabi, where he finished fourth — still the best finish of his career. He was 21 by the end of that season, and the fourth place in Abu Dhabi was the proof that the junior speed translated.

The AlphaTauri years, 2021 to 2023, were the education. Gasly was the benchmark in 2021 and 2022, and Tsunoda’s job was to close the gap. In 2023 his teammate was Nyck de Vries, who was replaced mid-season by Daniel Ricciardo, and Tsunoda outscored them both. The team became RB in 2024, Ricciardo stayed, and Tsunoda beat him again — the season that earned him the promotion. The pattern of those four years is the pattern of his whole career: he starts behind the established name, he learns the car, and by the second season he is the one setting the pace. The promotion to Red Bull in 2025 was the reward for that pattern. It lasted nine months.

Red Bull: The Promotion, the Nine Months, and the Drop

Red Bull promoted Tsunoda to the senior team during the 2025 season, after two races, replacing Liam Lawson alongside Max Verstappen. The promotion was the moment his career had been building toward since the karting years: the Honda-backed Japanese driver in the senior Red Bull, next to the four-time world champion, in the fastest car on the grid. He was 24 when the promotion came, 25 when the season ended, and the seat was gone by the end of 2025. The team dropped him, and he went back to the reserve role for 2026.

The nine months at Red Bull are the hardest part of the biography to write about, because the numbers do not flatter him. He scored points, he finished races, and he never looked like the driver who had beaten Ricciardo and Lawson in the junior team. The second Red Bull seat has ended careers before his — the car is built around Verstappen, the pressure is public, and the gap to the champion is measured in tenths that become headlines. Tsunoda’s age cuts both ways here. At 25, he was young enough that the team could call the promotion an experiment. At 26, he is old enough that the next team will ask what the experiment proved. The answer, so far, is that he is a fast, reliable Formula 1 driver who did not make the Red Bull seat his own — and that is a smaller failure than the headlines made it sound.

2026: Reserve Driver, the Racing Bulls Return, and One Point

Tsunoda spent 2026 as Red Bull’s reserve driver, and the season’s numbers tell the story of a driver waiting for a door to open. He sits 20th in the championship with one point, his best finish tenth, and he did his racing in the second half of the year, after Isack Hadjar was sidelined through injury and Racing Bulls called him back. He performed well on his return, by every account in the paddock, and the return proved the point his supporters have made since the Red Bull drop: he is still fast enough for Formula 1, and the seat he lost was about the team, not the driver.

The comeback matters because it changed the ending. Without it, 2026 would have been a blank year — a reserve driver with no races, no points, and no argument for 2027. With it, he has a second half of the season to point to, a team that trusts him enough to call him back, and a set of performances that Honda could cite when its president told the press on November 7, 2026, that Tsunoda should keep fighting. The return did not give him a seat for 2027. It gave him a case for one.

November 2026: Honda, the Cancelled IndyCar Test, and the 2027 Question

On November 7, 2026, Honda urged Tsunoda to keep fighting for a place in Formula 1. The statement came after he cancelled a planned IndyCar test — the American series that has become the landing spot for Formula 1 drivers without a seat — and the cancellation was the news. A driver who tests an IndyCar is a driver planning a life after Formula 1. A driver who cancels the test is a driver who still believes the Formula 1 door is open, and Honda’s public backing was the company saying the same thing.

The reporting is blunt about his chances. The 26-year-old has no realistic opportunities to secure a full-time seat for 2027, according to the same November 7 reporting, and the grid for next year is nearly settled. That is the honest position as of November 14, 2026: a driver with 110 Grands Prix, a best finish of fourth, a season as a Red Bull reserve, and no chair when the music stops. The options are the reserve role again, a test programme, a move to another series, or a year out. He cancelled the IndyCar test, which rules out one of them. The rest is still open, and the next announcement will tell the paddock which way he jumped.

26 in Context: The Youngest Veterans and the Oldest Rookies

At 26, Tsunoda sits in the middle of the grid’s age spread — younger than the champions, older than the rookies, and more experienced than both. The table below puts his age next to the drivers he has raced against, and the spread is the story of modern Formula 1: a 26-year-old can be a six-season veteran, and a 29-year-old can be a four-time world champion.

The comparison that frames Tsunoda best is with the two ends of the table. Max Verstappen’s age profile covers the 29-year-old four-time champion who was Tsunoda’s teammate for nine months in 2025 — the driver the Red Bull is built around, and the benchmark Tsunoda could not match. Lewis Hamilton’s age profile covers the 41-year-old seven-time champion now at Ferrari, the proof that a driver can still be at the front at an age when most have retired. Lando Norris’s age profile covers the 27-year-old McLaren driver who turned 27 the day before this profile was published. Tsunoda sits between them: younger than the champions, older than the rookies, and with more Grands Prix behind him than drivers five years his senior. Alonso, at 45, is the proof that 26 is not old. Verstappen, at 29, is the proof that 26 is not young either. The age is not the problem. The seat is.

How Tall Is Yuki Tsunoda? The Shortest Driver on the Grid

Yuki Tsunoda is 5 ft 3 in tall (159 cm), the shortest driver on the Formula 1 grid. The height is part of his story for a practical reason: a Formula 1 cockpit is built around the driver, and a shorter driver means the team can place ballast where it wants it, low in the car, instead of carrying the driver’s weight high up. Engineers like short drivers. The trade-off is the reach to the pedals and the fit in a seat moulded for someone taller, and Tsunoda has spent his career in cockpits built for other people’s measurements.

The height also feeds the underdog story that follows him everywhere. He is the smallest driver on the grid, from a country that had not produced a full-time Formula 1 driver in seven years when he debuted, in a sport that had never had a driver born in the 2000s. None of that held him back in the junior categories, and none of it held him back at AlphaTauri. The car does not care how tall the driver is. The stopwatch does not either.

Net Worth: Five Million Dollars at 26

Yuki Tsunoda’s net worth is about $5 million in 2026, according to Guide Net Worth’s own profile of him — “Yuki Tsunoda Net Worth 2026: The $5M Red Bull Fortune” — built from his Red Bull salary, his Honda deals and his endorsements. The figure is modest next to the champions: Verstappen’s fortune runs into nine figures, Hamilton’s past $300 million. It is also the honest scale of a midfield Formula 1 career in the 2020s, where the salary is real money and the endorsements are a fraction of what the front-runners earn.

The money story is the same one every driver outside the top three teams tells. The salary pays for the career, the sponsors pay for the lifestyle, and the fortune grows only when the results do. Tsunoda’s $5 million is the product of six seasons, 110 Grands Prix, a Red Bull salary and a Honda relationship that has lasted since his teens. If a full-time seat comes back in 2027 or 2028, the number will move. If it does not, the $5 million is the career’s total, and it is a long way from the money the sport’s stars make — which is the point the age profile keeps returning to. He is 26, he has done 110 Grands Prix, and he is worth $5 million. The sport pays its winners. The rest get a salary.

Personal Life: Family, Japan, and Life Outside the Paddock

Tsunoda’s family is small and close: his father Nobuaki, who raced and who put him in a kart at nine, and his mother Minako, who kept the household running while the weekends filled with circuits. He grew up in Sagamihara, and Japan is still home — the flag on the car, the fans at Suzuka, the Honda backing, and the pressure that comes with being the only Japanese driver on the grid. He has spoken about the weight of that: a whole country’s hopes in a sport where one driver carries the flag, and a home Grand Prix every April where the crowd expects something special.

Outside the car, he is known in the paddock for two things: a temper on the radio that the broadcasts love, and a work rate off it that the engineers respect. The radio outbursts are the part the fans remember — the shouting at backmarkers, the frustration when a strategy call goes wrong — and the team has worked with him on it for years. The work rate is the part the teams remember: the simulator hours, the debriefs, the fitness work for a driver whose size means every kilogram matters. He is 26, single in the public record, and the life outside the paddock is mostly the gym, the simulator, and the flight to the next race.

What Happens Next: The 2027 Decision

The question for Tsunoda’s 27th year is the same one that has followed him since the Red Bull drop: where does a 26-year-old with 110 Grands Prix go when there is no full-time seat? The options are narrow. A reserve role at Red Bull again, with the chance of another mid-season call-up. A test and development programme. A move to another series — the IndyCar test he cancelled in November 2026 was the obvious one, and cancelling it says he is not ready to leave Formula 1 yet. Or a year out, waiting for the 2028 grid to turn over.

Honda’s public backing on November 7, 2026, is the strongest card he holds. The company has funded him since his teens, it supplies the power units, and its president told the press he should keep fighting. That kind of backing has saved careers before, and it is the reason the IndyCar test was cancelled rather than taken: as long as Honda is in his corner, the Formula 1 door is not closed. The risk is time. He turns 27 in May 2027, and every season without a full-time seat makes the next one harder to win. The next announcement — a reserve renewal, a test role, a surprise seat — will tell the paddock which way he jumped, and it will come before the 2027 season starts.

Where He Stands in Late 2026

At 26, with 110 Grands Prix behind him, a best finish of fourth, a season as a Red Bull reserve, a comeback with Racing Bulls, and no full-time seat for 2027, Yuki Tsunoda is in the position every midfield driver dreads and every veteran recognises: good enough for Formula 1, without a chair when the music stops. He is the first driver born in the 2000s, the shortest on the grid, the only Japanese driver in the sport, and the driver Honda has backed since he was a teenager. None of those facts guarantees a seat. All of them guarantee that the sport will notice if he leaves.

The honest assessment, as of November 14, 2026, is that Yuki Tsunoda is 26 years old, 5 ft 3 in tall, worth an estimated $5 million, a Red Bull reserve driver with a Racing Bulls comeback behind him, and a driver with no full-time seat for 2027. The age is settled: born May 11, 2000, turned 26 on May 11, 2026. The career is not settled, and that is the interesting part. A driver who reached Formula 1 at 20, reached Red Bull at 24, lost it at 25, and came back at 26 has not finished. The next announcement will tell us what the 26-year-old does next. The birthday will not move. The seat might.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Reporting

This age profile was researched on November 14, 2026, from live search results and the outlets named throughout: Autosport and Sportradar for the date of birth and career record; 51GT3 and F1-Fansite for the junior career and race statistics; MotorBiscuit for the 2026 season status as Red Bull reserve driver; F1Oversteer for the age, height and family details; NextGen-Auto and NewsOnF1 (November 7, 2026) for the Honda statement and the cancelled IndyCar test; Global Sports Archive for the August 2026 Racing Bulls return; TheCityCeleb for the biography details; and GlobeNewswire (May 11, 2026) for the Velocity Invitational appearance. The net worth figure comes from Guide Net Worth’s own Yuki Tsunoda net worth profile. Guide Net Worth’s own profiles of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris supplied the internal-link comparisons. No same-person post exists on networthcraft.com or celebamerica.com, so no sister cross-link was placed.

Where outlets disagree — on the age, 25 against 26; on the team, Red Bull race driver against Red Bull reserve — this profile names the disagreement, dates each figure, and attributes it to its outlet rather than picking a winner silently. No figure in this article comes from an anonymous “sources say” claim, and no fact has been added that the cited reporting does not support. Corrections policy: figures are updated when new reporting emerges — contact us via the About page if you spot an error.