Yuki Tsunoda expands on his helpless situation with regards to Red Bull seat and preparation for upcoming F1 test in Abu Dhabi.
Drivers have come and gone but Visa Cash App RB’s Tsunoda hasn’t been shortlisted as much for the Red Bull F1 seat in all these years. Even now when Sergio Perez is struggling, the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson and even Franco Colapinto’s name has been linked to it.
But Tsunoda, it is mostly him who raises the questions. The Red Bull test he’s set for in Abu Dhabi too came after joint discussions with Honda. It is not bothering the Japanese driver as much now, since he is used to such situations now. All he can do is perform and beat his teammates.
He has done so but there’s nothing more he can do now. When asked about the situation, Tsunoda had no answers but indicated that Red Bull has changed ever since the passing of Dietrich Mateschitz. At the moment, he’s preparing for the Red Bull test and he feels the car suits him well after driving in sim.
Elsewhere, Perez insisted that he will drive for Red Bull in 2025 after more questions in Qatar. He reiterated that the team knows what has hurt him and how he can bounce back. He didn’t wish to go into the details about the contract, etc, if the team ends up dropping him.
Results there but still –
Tsunoda: “P7 is pretty good. The thing is Pierre did a P3, so that makes it a little bit less bright. But I was still P7. Between McLaren is pretty good I guess and quite close to Max as well. I mean, not just last weekend, I guess throughout the years, I think I’m showing quite good, and it’s up to them, and I’ve just got to do whatever I can to… There’s not much reasons to point out why they don’t want to put me in the Red Bull. So the next two races I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and try to show my performance consistently. I don’t know [why my name doesn’t pop up].
“Please could you interview them and find out? To be honest, I don’t know. Even whatever they say in the interview, even they say, ‘Yuki is in the mix’, I don’t know if that’s the truth or not to be honest. So, yeah, I hope I’m in that mix, and if not, I don’t know what I should do more than this, to be honest. I’ll just keep pushing and things I can control. And those things, the Red Bull seat, they decide everything. I’m sure if I’m in the seat, I can fight for a higher Constructors’ Championship [position] and what they want. But, other things, politics things. They decide what they want.”
Red Bull test, sim prep –
Tsunoda: “For now, from what I can imagine, the test, it’s just a test. I mean, throughout the year so far, how they’re seeing the Red Bull, from the Red Bull, I feel like this test is just a test. It’s more definitely important for the next two races rather than the test. Hopefully the test will give a bit more better impression, or better picture how exactly who I am as a driver. But I think the next two races are definitely more important to be in that mix, talking about the seat. I drove different tracks just to get used to how the Red Bull car looks. It’s a pretty fast car.
“In the simulator at least, it just feels different [to the RB] and just great to drive, like the amount of speed you can carry into the corner. And it’s quite sharp turning compared with our car. But it just feels great. Normally, simulator work is more like work, right? But when I was driving [the Red Bull], I feel I… there was a bit of an enjoyable feeling when I was driving. So I think, at least for so far, from what I experienced in the simulator, it’s a car that will suit me. I think actually that car suits me well. So, yeah, it’s pretty good.”
Understand the situation –
Tsunoda: “Historically looking back, it’s pretty natural that the driver, for example, in our team, if one driver outperforms the other driver like this consistently the last few years, you get promoted. It’s kind of a natural thing. Maybe something changed. The dynamics maybe changed, Red Bull itself changed after Mr. Mateschitz passed away. I mean, one of the drivers has got a Drivers’ Championship, and this is a team that has had success since quite a long time, so what they’re doing is I guess not a bad thing, but it doesn’t really make sense for me that I didn’t really be in the mix much so far. I don’t know much. For myself at least, I can’t find much reasons why they’re not really, so far, talking about me heavily.
“I got used to it. It’s just throughout the year, I thought what I’ve done, especially since Daniel, you know, if one or the other goes really well, I thought is going to Red Bull or whatever, they really haven’t. And probably since last year a little bit as well. So, more I just got used to it and unfortunately this is the situation, or I guess, dynamics how Red Bull works I guess. Maybe they’re facing difficult things, different things that probably I don’t know, or we don’t know, in the background. I’ve just got to force them with my results or my performance, ‘We really need Yuki in our seat, otherwise, things will change’. I’ve just got to force them with my performance.”
Dependent on constructors’ –
Tsunoda: “The Constructors’ is not just about me, but I will feel definitely responsible as a driver, myself, if we are able to achieve P6, because maybe a couple of races I could have done better, but I’m sure every team, every driver does have those situations. And if they say, ‘Okay, P6 is the task that you have to be in the Red Bull seat’, it’s a pretty difficult thing to say, because the team championship is combined between the team’s drivers, not just individual drivers. But I’ll do as much as I can. And I take it as that way, I guess. And hopefully, if I can score P6, that will give a better reason to put me in the Red Bull seat.”
Explain fans about difference to Verstappen –
Perez: “Yeah, I think it’s very difficult for people to understand that they’re not part of the team or are not on a daily basis. From one race to another, let’s say you are so far away. I think when you are not able to extract 100% out of your car, it’s irrelevant how good your car is. And this is what happened. You know, I haven’t been able to extract 100% out of my car because of the difficulties I’ve had in the last few months with it. And I think that’s the main issue. You know, I think you go through periods and I think as a team, we are understanding and we’re working really hard to make sure that we can fix them.”
How certain of Red Bull retention –
Perez: “Yeah, exactly [I’ll be with Red Bull in 2025]. I don’t speak. I’ve been 14 years in the sport and I don’t speak about my contracts publicly. So I will not comment on that. I know exactly where I am and I will not speak about it publicly. I mean, at the end of the day, the team has all the information. There is so much I can say here. At the end of the day, the team has all the information. And there’s a reason why we extended my contract during the year. At the end of the day, the team has everything, and we exactly know where we are in terms of performance, in terms of issues, difficulties that we’ve had. We are a team and we know exactly internally where everything stands, so we’re working really hard as a team to come through and get back into a much better season than the one that we just had.”
Tsunoda ready for step –
Laurent Mekies: “Well, I think a guy at that level that has been scoring the amount of points he’s scored this year, a guy that has put the car in P7 or in P3 in the last two races in qualifying, of course I think he’s ready to get a faster car. We are hoping to provide him with this faster car, but of course, I think he’s ready for a faster car and a faster team or a bigger team. So the short answer is yes. And as for the test you will do with them, you know, I think it’s been very important for our drivers to get a chance into the bigger team, into our brother team. It’s one of our key DNA aspects for this team to be able to grow our drivers and to make them attractive enough so that Red Bull Racing want to have them. So we are very happy that you have this test and I’m confident it will perform well.”
Why not on the list thus far –
Mekies: “All I can tell you is that the steps he has been doing this year have been, I think, a surprise to everyone and hopefully the surprise has also been for Red Bull Racing. I think we are in a business where everybody looks at the results and the second a driver starts to perform or to outperform compared to the expectations, then everybody will then change their opinions very, very fast. So I think for Yuki, it’s all about continuing to perform at a mega high level on the track. And we are all very quick to change our mind as soon as we see a guy performing. And I think it’s good news for the sport.”
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