Tue. Oct 21st, 2025
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 10: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing prepares to drive in the garage during Formula 1 testing at Yas Marina Circuit on December 10, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202412100643 // Usage for editorial use only //

Yuki Tsunoda will continue at RB after he was not chosen to partner world champion Max Verstappen in 2025.

Despite a stellar season from Tsunoda that saw him outscore Daniel Ricciardo and then beat Liam Lawson in both points and qualifying H2H, he’ll remain at Red Bull’s sister team for 2025 with Lawson moving up to partner Verstappen.

Making his F1 debut in 2021 with AlphaTauri, Tsunoda consistently improved alongside Pierre Gasly before beating Nyck de Vries, Ricciardo and Lawson over two seasons.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has spoken out on the decision to pick Lawson ahead of Tsunoda as Sergio Perez’s replacement.

Marko told Sport: “In terms of speed, Tsunoda is definitely the faster of the two at the moment, he lacks the necessary consistency and continues to make mistakes.”

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – DECEMBER 10: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan driving the (22) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 in the Pitlane during Formula 1 testing at Yas Marina Circuit on December 10, 2024 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Mark Sutton/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202412100633 // Usage for editorial use only //

Marko highlighted Tsunoda’s issue with aggression which has been seen publicly on a number of occasions since his F1 debut, both over the radio and in Bahrain last season when he aggressively turned into Ricciardo after the team used team orders with the Australian on much faster tyres.

The Ricciardo incident in Bahrain may have cost the 8-time race winner multiple positions too with Tsunoda taking multiple laps to respond to the team orders.

Incidents like this has meant he isn’t ready for a Red Bull seat according to Marko leaving Lawson with the opportunity to race for the main team.

“His outbursts of anger have improved considerably but remain an issue. He loses control.”

“We believe it would cause significant emotional challenges for Tsunoda if he realised alongside Max that he couldn’t beat him, or perhaps even get close to him, and that things weren’t going as he had imagined,”

Red Bull are in desperate need of a consistent second driver after Perez was eighth in the Drivers Championship last season and over 150 points behind his teammate. Whether Lawson is that solution is still to be decided but it’s clear there’s plenty of backing for the Kiwi within the Red Bull squad.

Related Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *