Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull return hits trouble as F1 car catches fire

Yuki Tsunoda's return to a Red Bull F1 car ended with the Japanese racer having to abruptly exit the car, after the RB7 caught fire at a fan event this weekend.

Tsunoda was taking part in a showrun in San Francisco, showing off Red Bull's 2011 championship-winning car to adoring F1 fans, but the event came to an abrupt halt when the rear of the car burst into flames after Tsunoda had completed some donuts.

Social media videos showed the dramatic incident, and also appeared to show Tsunoda getting out of the car and walking to safety, while safety teams came to deal with the fire.

A Red Bull spokesperson told GPFans after the incident: "Following an extended demo run, Yuki performed routine burnouts in the 2011 RB7. The exhaust system overheated, igniting the rear of the car. The fire was quickly extinguished by on-site marshals, and no one was injured."

The Ford-backed showrun was designed to bring Red Bull Racing to the streets of America, allowing for more exposure of the F1 team ahead of the 2026 season, in which Tsunoda will only be a reserve driver having been replaced by Isack Hadjar at the end of last year.

This event was Tsunoda's first following his axing from the team and his new redesigned role at Red Bull will include special demonstrations like these, just as Daniel Ricciardo participated in when he was a reserve driver with the team.

Tsunoda was joined on this occasion by Ford off-road star Mitch Guthrie, freestyle motocross rider Aaron Colton and former F1 driver Scott Speed, who also appeared to hit trouble after a video on social media showed him making contact with the barriers in F1 machinery.

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Tsunoda car catches fire

The RB7 was a Red Bull machine from before the hybrid era, and this could be heard by the noise that the 2011 car was generating through the streets of San Francisco.

It was the car in which Sebastian Vettel claimed his second world championship title, winning 11 grands prix in that season.

For these showruns, the older car's livery is replaced with the new sponsors and decals, to maintain consistency within the Red Bull brand around the world.

This was not the first time a Red Bull car has caught fire while Tsunoda has been completing donuts at a showrun. At a special event in Taiwan back in 2024, a very similar incident happened when he was driving a 2012-spec Red Bull F1 car.

Meanwhile, the very 2011 machinery that Tsunoda was driving in San Francisco also caught fire during a showrun in Russia all the way back in 2014, this time with former Red Bull junior driver Alex Lynn behind the wheel.

In all of these previous incidents, the fires were quickly dealt with, and there were no reports of any casualties.

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