A member of the Red Bull Junior Team since 2019, Tsunoda signed for AlphaTauri in 2021, using a Honda powertrain alongside Pierre Gasly; he finished a career-best fourth at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that year.

[8] Tsunoda amassed seven wins and claimed the title during the final race at Motegi, beating rival Teppei Natori by 14 points.

[33] In the beginning of 2020, Honda announced that Tsunoda would join Carlin to race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship alongside new Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala.

Tsunoda would briefly lead on lap 30 after a safety car restart due to the frontrunners pitting again, but they caught up on fresher tyres, including fellow compartriot Nobuharu Matsushita, and he dropped to fourth.

His disappointing weekend continued in the sprint race, as he damaged his front wing hitting the back of Felipe Drugovich on the fourth last lap, and was forced to pit which dropped him to 20th.

[91][92][93] He reached Q3 again at the Styrian Grand Prix, qualifying eighth, but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Valtteri Bottas.

[97] He secured a point with 10th place at the British Grand Prix, having started 16th and benefited from a late pit stop from Sergio Pérez.

[98][99][100] He again qualified 16th at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but avoided the lap 1 collisions and gained from Sebastian Vettel's disqualification to be classified sixth in the race, improving his highest F1 result.

[101][102] Tsunoda qualified 15th at the Dutch Grand Prix, but he would fail to finish the race as he retired in the pits with a power unit issue.

During the Turkish Grand Prix, he held back Lewis Hamilton for numerous laps but a spin later cost him a chance of points and he finished 14th.

[107] He started 10th at the United States Grand Prix, passed teammate Gasly and finished ninth, his first points since the summer break.

[108] He qualified ninth for the Mexico City Grand Prix, but was required to start at the back due to taking additional power unit elements.

[125][126] A fuel issue prevented him from setting a qualifying time at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix;[127][128] he then failed to start the race after a power unit failure.

[151][152] He had stopped at the side of the track and loosened his seatbelts before driving back to the pits, for which he was given his fifth reprimand of the season and therefore a grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix.

[161] At the São Paulo Grand Prix, an unusual glitch in the safety car system meant that Tsunoda drove to 17th place, the only driver who was lapped during the race.

[167] At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, a safety car allowed Tsunoda to make his pit stop and jump up to eighth place.

[168] At the Australian Grand Prix, Tsunoda qualified 12th and ran as high as fifth when the race restarted after the second red flag, but was demoted to 11th when the order was reset after the third stoppage.

[177] He finished ninth at the Spanish Grand Prix but received a penalty for forcing Zhou Guanyu off the track, dropping him outside the points.

[179] At the Austrian Grand Prix, his front wing broke in a collision with Esteban Ocon and he received multiple penalties post-race for track limits infringements.

[189] At the United States Grand Prix, Tsunoda benefitted a position to tenth place after Fernando Alonso retired, and then pitted late on to set his first fastest lap.

[190] Having scored his first points since the summer break, this was further aided after Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified, promoting Tsunoda to eighth.

[192] After surprisingly made his points midway through the race, his charge halted when he was tagged in a spin by Oscar Piastri, and was left to rue what could have been in 12th.

[202] At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, starting 11th,[203] Tsunoda was battling Kevin Magnussen for 12th but was ordered to allow teammate Ricciardo through, in which he expressed his frustration.

[204] At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Tsunoda achieved his first Q3 of the year qualifying ninth,[205] but he would slip back on race day, being once again embroiled in a battle with Magnussen to eventually finish 15th.

[207] Nailing his strategy, he crossed the line in seventh place, once again being praised for making "big steps" whilst scoring his first points of 2024.

[210] Despite being stuck in the midfield mid-race, a superb second pit stop allowed him to jump his rivals and finish tenth, becoming the first Japanese driver to score points on home soil since 2012.

[211] An unlucky Chinese Grand Prix followed, as Tsunoda was tipped into a spin by Magnussen following a safety car restart, which caused the former to retire.

[219][220] Starting from 13th at the British Grand Prix, Tsunoda took advantage of the inclement weather and secured tenth place,[221] then he backed that result up by finishing ninth at the next race in Hungary despite a big crash in Q3.

[231] A frustrating weekend in Mexico City Grand Prix followed, crashing out in qualifying and being taken out by colliding rearwards on the opening lap by Alex Albon.

[234] The week before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Tsunoda was interrogated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Harry Reid International Airport for several hours whilst attempting to enter the country.