YUKI TSUNODA had to abandon ship midway through a showrun as his Red Bull F1 car caught fire.

The Japanese racer was doing donuts on the streets of San Francisco in the first of three events to promote the constructor ahead of the new season.

Yuki Tsunoda’s show car burst into flames at a Red Bull event in America

He had to leave the vehicle as smoke started to come out of the back endCredit: Splash
A team put out the fire and nobody was harmedCredit: Splash
But he had to get out before it was too late after smoke started to come from the back of his car.

Tsunoda, 25, is a reserve and test driver for Red Bull in 2026, and was there to demo an old Red Bull car.

Videos of the former Alpha Tauri man performing trick moves in his vehicle in front of thousands of fans emerged online.

Quickly after getting to the top of the track, where supporters gathered to watch, the back end of Tsunoda’s car can be seen smoking.

He continued to get the RB7 – the model which Sebastian Vettel drove to World Championship success in 2011 – to go round in circles whilst smoke filled the air.

Tsunoda went on doing the donuts for 30 seconds as the smoke got thicker before finally stopping.

Shortly after flames could be seen by the rear tyres and fans cried out for him to get out.

As the flames started to get bigger, Tsunoda climbed out with the smoke turning darker.

Despite the danger, Tsunoda appeared calm as he got to his feet and walked away slowly, waving smoke out of his face.

An emergency team are then on hand to extinguish the fire as it threatens to engulf the car.

Tsunoda is moved away from the car as the incident is dealt with and the car gets left on the road.

Unfortunately for him, some were only too happy to point out his record of failing to finish.

Tsunoda only recorded a DNF once in 2025 but had four in 2024 and two more the year before.

In 2022 he had DNFs five times with three in 2021.

One social media user wrote: “Tsunoda pulling off a DNF even in an exhibition.”

Tsunoda had said before the event: “I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of an F1 car and to do that in RB7 in San Francisco will be amazing.

“I’m really looking forward to getting out there, doing some donuts and making some real F1 noise in front of the crowds.”

The driver has never reached a podium in his Formula One career to date, recording 33 points last year.

He will have to watch on as Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen do the competing week-on-week for Red Bull.

The next showrun is in Phoenix in a month before the third and final one in Atlanta a few weeks later.