Yuki Tsunoda spills on friendship with Liam Lawson after his Red Bull move, as he adds on latest snub and how he looks at F1 2025.
Red Bull overlooked Tsunoda to take Lawson for the 2025 F1 season alongside Max Verstappen after they decided to drop Sergio Perez due to continuous poor performance. The Japanese was pitted against Daniel Ricciardo at Visa Cash App RB and came out with flying colours.
He then had Lawson whom he beat as well but Red Bull still opted for the Kiwi to partner the Dutchman due to the ‘X-Factor’. Tsunoda certainly understands the reason why he was not taken up by the senior F1 team, but he has not given up as he takes leadership role at Visa Cash App RB.
It is another test for Tsunoda being a leader alongside rookie Isack Hadjar. The Japanese driver is ready to not just help the team push forward, but also the Frenchman like he had Pierre Gasly at his side. The start to F1 2025 could be so-so for Visa Cash App RB, who did not look good in testing.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, was fairly to the point when asked about his relationship with Lawson, which is friendly but not as close now. The Japanese driver also has his management changed in the winter, but he put it down to communication for the change than the Red Bull snub.
Friendship with Liam Lawson –
Tsunoda: “First of all definitely…I mean…all right, I wouldn’t say I’m happy for him. Like, that’s kind of a lie. He has done definitely what he should do and, he gave his best. He gave definitely a 100% performance, and, also, I gave 100%. It was in the end up to Red Bull how they’re going to do it. It is kind of…there’s not necessarily massive feeling, it is what it is and in terms of friendship, we’re still friends for sure, and we still chat each other, and I like to talk to him. And, yes, since 2020, before that, actually, we had a lot of time that we are teammates, driving in the same categories.
“But since 2020, we are a bit apart, different categories that we are racing at, so we have had less communication. Since then our friendship really changed. As a driver, he is an enemy, which is same for all the drivers but it is funny that we were racing together until 2019 throughout, so that is six to seven years, I know how he drives, his characteristic as a driver, how aggressive he is. I think I can use that as an advantage, and yeah, looking forward to fight against him.”
Reason if any for Red Bull snub –
Tsunoda: “In the end, they tell me…okay…they chose Liam, probably like 30 minutes before the announcement. To be honest, I really didn’t dig in the reason why, I kind of was prepared already, I was like ‘okay, I did my best anyways’. All they say was…never really necessarily, or I didn’t take it…kind of questioned that they chose because of the performance. I sensed it, that it was bit more like, I don’t know, maybe it was something that they want to do, it was a situation for the best for them, I guess, I don’t know. In terms of mood or I don’t know.
“They mentioned one that it is not really coming from my performance, that’s what I am saying…something like, you know that, so I didn’t really dig in the matter. At the same time, they said that anything can happen in this world, you saw it last year what’s happened, even to our team as well, so just keep on what you are doing and also from Helmut, from his personality, clearly I got the direction. You have to be on the toe, I think you score something good for you as a driver that being in a leadership position to develop yourself, so that’s the direction I am on this year.”
Management change (parted ways with Mario Miyakawa and Luis Alvarez, hired Diego Menchaca) –
Tsunoda: “It is not like…first of all it is not like changed my management because of the situation happened [with Red Bull]. I appreciate his work, and I like him as a person, and we’re still definitely still friends. I just wanted to kind of refresh my team structure. I knew that at some point…because at the end, it was just not really connected to each other, each person. Still Mario and Luis are talented, I appreciated them, but I feel like there’s another way that I can take a different approach. That’s why I did the massive change and so far, I am happy with it, happier than last year. I just feel naturally a bit more connected. Maybe partly [that change is since I have no contract]. But in the end, I know that those kinds of contract things [are] mainly coming from my performance rather than [my] management team.
“So whatever [my] management team works on, it’s always coming from performance. And if the driver is not performing well, it always makes their life very hard. It is more like general communication with the structure, just wanted to be a bit more organised and Red Bull or Racing Bulls or sponsors, it is just…if they know each other, communicate better, it is slightly more efficient everything. It is still very important and I have kind of got used to the situation that I don’t have contract for next year, it is actually maybe good thing that last four years, it has always been in the same situation and I know how to make it through.”
Leader in F1 2025 –
Tsunoda: “I didn’t really think about it, but I feel definitely more, I would say, responsible. But at the same time, maybe I was just misunderstanding by myself, but last year, beginning of the season, in a similar time like now, I was feeling obviously not strong as much as now, but a similar feeling because already I was fourth season into this team. I know Daniel was an experienced driver, but at the same time, team expecting to be more than [just around] Daniel, because, especially first race, I knew about the car more. So, not much difference. I know it’s going to be a very tight fight, and extracting the performance from the car 100% in each race will be very crucial, more than developing the car this year, I guess. So yeah, I’m feeling ready obviously, but a bit more responsibility, yeah.”
Helping Isack Hadjar –
Tsunoda: “Yeah, I would say so, definitely. I mean, if he’s [Hadjar’s] in a [tough] situation, I hope not, but struggling or whatever, I’ll help as much as possible if I can. I think with these kind of top 20 drivers in the world, he knows also how they recover from any hard situation. So, in the end, what I’ve done also in the first year was, I mean, I didn’t really necessarily ask Pierre what should I do or whatever, I just looked up to a him, how he’s behaving in the team, how he prepared for the race. And those things naturally you get it from the drivers. Isack, anyway, he’s fast, and I’m sure it’s a different situation to mine, so, let’s see.”
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