Yuki Tsunoda is still eager to land a Red Bull promotion despite Liam Lawson being the latest driver struggling to adapt to the Milton Keynes-based Formula 1 outfit.
Tsunoda is spending a fifth season with the Faenza-based Red Bull sister team, Racing Bulls after Lawson was granted promotion over him.
But like Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly before him, Lawson is showing signs of struggle.
It is early days, but seeing the promising talent of Lawson stuck at the back of the grid in the RB21 at Shanghai is a sight nobody wants to see, except for Red Bull’s rivals perhaps.
Racing Bulls, meanwhile, is performing strongly in China, with Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda set to line up seventh and ninth on Sunday’s grid.
Racing Bulls’ pace prompted Max Verstappen’s verdict in the media pen post-qualifying, to which he said (via Sky Sports) “They’re doing very well, they’re very close to me. Maybe that also says something.”
Despite this, Tsunoda is still keen to try out the Red Bull.
Asked whether he’d be keen to drive the RB21 Tsunoda told select media including Motorsport Week “Always, yeah.”
A light-hearted probing question followed, would Tsunoda want to drive the capricious Red Bull at his home race in Japan next time out?
“Japan, yeah,” he replied, before adding “I mean, their car is faster.”
Asked if he was sure of that assessment, Tsunoda replied “I’m sure.”
Racing Bulls on a positive path – Tsunoda
The jury is out on Red Bull still but it’s clear to see Racing Bulls has developed a strong midfield contender.
Question marks lingered over the team during testing but on pace, Racing Bulls should have come away with at least one top-10 result in Australia.
A double top-10 finish in Qualifying at the Shanghai International Circuit confirms the team’s progress over the end of last season.
“To be honest Australia, I thought it would be more, you know, the performance coming from the track characteristic,” Tsunoda said.
“But it seems even China, [which has] a lot different characteristics compared to Australia, I thought it would be a big limitation for us, but so far seems actually performing consistently as much as Australia, so [that’s a] big surprise.
“Last year if I remember correctly, like this kind of long corners we tend to struggle, especially long run, but Sprint qualifying, race I feel pretty consistent, and the pace seems so far very strong like I had in Australia.
“Obviously it’s too probably early to conclude it, I mean Suzuka is another different track, but so far seems like we have a positive path.”
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