After switching from the Red Bull teams to Aston Martin as their engine supplier, Honda hopes to keep helping Yuki Tsunoda.

After 2025, Honda plans to part ways with Red Bull and the RB team, but when they go to Aston Martin for their supply, they still intend to maintain a “close eye” on Yuki Tsunoda.

Honda hopes to promote Yuki Tsunoda to RBR

Tsunoda still has a contract with the Red Bull youth club, although it expires at the end of this season. The young Japanese driver was rumored to have a spot at Aston Martin for the upcoming season, prior to the company switching to Honda power.

 However, that opportunity appears to have closed with Fernando Alonso’s re-signing.

With Liam Lawson and the returning Daniel Ricciardo posing a threat to Tsunoda’s place in the cockpit, the team apparently considered him lucky to be selected for the second RB position this season. However, Tsunoda was reportedly dependent on Honda’s assistance to hold onto his seat.

As a result of Tsunoda’s consistent advantage over Ricciardo in the first few races of this season, Honda CEO Koji Watanabe is optimistic that the Honda Formula Dream Project alumnus will be able to lock down a spot with Red Bull in 2025.

“I think it’s a very nice story that Tsunoda first plays an active role at RB and then gets promoted to Red Bull,” Watanabe told Motorsport.com.

“Even if it’s only after we leave, we’d like to keep an eye on him moving up to the top teams.

“Tsunoda graduated from the Honda Racing School and it is our dream that HRC students can become top riders. So it’s really important that Yuki becomes a top driver in Formula 1.”

Honda will likely be able to continue supporting Tsunoda as a sponsor even if he is kept in Formula 1 and stays under the Red Bull brand despite racing for a rival engine manufacturer in Red Bull Powertrains.

“It’s not necessarily difficult,” Watanabe said.

“We have to decide and see what the situation is. But we can support Yuki to become a top driver.”

Although it seems unlikely that Alonso’s father, Lawrence Stroll, would remove his son Lance from the seat next to him, Watanabe stated that Tsunoda’s candidacy cannot be completely ruled out.

“We still don’t know what Aston Martin’s line-up will look like,” he said.

“Alonso has been confirmed, but I haven’t heard that Stroll has been confirmed.”

“I don’t think the probability of that is zero, so I think there is a possibility of that at this stage.”

Honda doesn’t currently have any intentions to expand its engine supply to customers other than Aston Martin, so finding Tsunoda a seat is unlikely.

“There may be other possibilities in the future,” he said.

“But at the moment we have no other plans. At the moment, we are not yet at the stage where we are expanding our customer team,” explains Watanabe.

Although Tsunoda and Max Verstappen are still under wraps as potential Red Bull drivers, the Japanese driver expressed optimism that he is making a strong enough impression to warrant consideration.

“Hopefully they will consider it,” said Tsunoda.

“I think at the same time, I’ll do as much as I can to show the performance even to the other teams.

“I just want to increase my value as a driver, that I can fight pretty strong.

“Obviously, I don’t know what’s going on with Red Bull, but hopefully, they will strongly consider it as well.”