Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has indicated Yuki Tsunoda being overlooked for a promotion in Formula 1 has derived from him lacking both “continuity and stability”.
Red Bull is destined to go into 2025 with a revised driver line-up as Sergio Perez’s recurring struggles have heightened reports that he will not be retained next season.
But although it is certain that Red Bull will decide between the two RB drivers, Liam Lawson is regarded as the one who’s poised to step up alongside Max Verstappen.
Tsunoda appears not to have done enough to convince Red Bull to promote him, despite emerging as RB’s standout driver this season with 30 of the team’s 46 points.
Tsunoda, who will drive Red Bull’s RB20 in the post-season test, reiterated his irritation last month in Las Vegas as he admitted he had no idea whether he’s in the mix.
Asked whether he believes he is a serious option to replace the struggling Perez, Tsunoda told media including Motorsport Week: “I don’t know.
“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.
“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.”
Red Bull reveals Tsunoda concern
Marko has revealed Red Bull has no reservations over Tsunoda’s inherent speed, but retains concern over whether he is consistent enough to survive at the sharp end.
“He has now delivered two very good races in Brazil and Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he made two stupid mistakes in Brazil before that,” Marko told Kleine Zeitung.
“Yuki has the speed, but he lacks continuity and stability. But when it works for him, it works very well.”
Marko repeated that a decision on Perez’s place will be made once the final round in Abu Dhabi has concluded, granting Tsunoda one last chance to impress Red Bull.
“There will be a meeting on Monday after Abu Dhabi and that’s when the decisions will be made,” the Austrian concluded.
READ MORE – RB insists Yuki Tsunoda ready to make Red Bull F1 step
