IndyCar's Kyle Kirkwood thoroughly defends Yuki Tsunoda after Saudi Arabian GP crash
Kyle Kirkwood is one of the IndyCar drivers who closely monitors the F1 world, as he shared his verdict on Yuki Tsunoda's crash in the Red Bull RB21 at the Saudi Arabian GP second Free Practice session. The 26-year-old defended the Japanese driver by saying that he was unfortunate in collecting the wall at a particular point, which broke his steering column and resulted in the crash.
After a mere two rounds of the 2025 F1 season, Red Bull sacked Liam Lawson in favor of Tsunoda, which garnered a horde of attention on the 24-year-old driver. The Japanese driver's debut weekend ended with a pointless finish, but he scored his first points with the Austrian giant at the subsequent race.
However, due to the nature of the switch, Yuki Tsunoda has been scrutinized for his driving with the RB21 at every moment. Subsequently, when the Japanese driver crashed at the free practice session on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a similar incident took place.
Regardless of the concerns, Andretti IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood reasoned that the whole incident was unfortunate and wrote on X:
"Would like to point out, If you look closely, you can tell the corner is made up of 10ft(ish) flat walls that have many sharp joints where they connect. He happened to hit one of the joints perfectly. If this was a smooth wall or hits in a flat portion this likely isn’t a crash."
On the other hand, with Cadillac joining the F1 grid in 2026, the team is slated to pick up an American IndyCar driver, which has resulted in the Andretti drivers being in high contention for a possible F1 venture.
Kyle Kirkwood gives his verdict on possibly moving to F1
While Colton Herta seemingly tops the candidate list, Andretti's close connection with the Cadillac/GM project could help other drivers come under consideration. This could help Kyle Kirkwood, who is an Andretti driver and sits second in the interim IndyCar standings.
Moreover, when asked about whether he would like to move over to the F1 realm, the Long Beach GP winner asserted he was interested in such an opportunity, and said, via The Race:
"Of course, it would be of interest. But at the same time, I love what I do here in IndyCar. It's what I always aspired to be - an IndyCar driver. It keeps me in the US, it keeps me at the place where I grew up.
"I was born and raised in Jupiter, Florida and I still live in Jupiter, Florida - and I love that about IndyCar, it keeps Americans at home at least... Of course, I'm interested, but I wouldn't be upset if I wasn't given the opportunity."
Meanwhile, Kyle Kirkwood has a 34-point deficit to the championship leader and reigning champion Alex Palou, and would be hoping to reduce this delta at the next race weekend in Alabama on May 4.