Tsunoda feels he deserves Red Bull seat as RB racer reacts to Lawson’s return

Yuki Tsunoda fielded another round of questions over his future within the Red Bull family ahead of the United States Grand Prix, as the media followed up on RB’s latest in-season driver swap involving Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo.

News of Ricciardo’s departure landed a few days after the last round of the season in Singapore and, while explaining the decision in an appearance on the F1 Nation podcast, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated that “we need answers for the bigger picture in terms of drivers”.

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He added: “Obviously, we’ve got a contract with Sergio [Perez] for next year, but you’ve always got to have an eye out in terms of what comes next. Is that going to be Liam? Or do we need to look outside the pool? Or will one of the other juniors step up in the fullness of time?”

Tsunoda is contesting his fourth F1 campaign with Red Bull’s sister team but, up to now, has not been given a chance to step up and compete alongside Max Verstappen – the 24-year-old Japanese racer settling for an RB extension through 2025 announced back in June.

Asked about being seen as a benchmark for his team mates over the last couple of seasons, and whether it changes his approach in terms of a Red Bull seat potentially being available, Tsunoda replied: “No, zero. I would say those things I’ve kind of got used to.

“It’s been floating around throughout the year so far, so there’s no point in talking about it to be honest. For me, I’ve just got to do whatever I have to, to focus and improve myself.”

He continued: “This environment is all about performance and I just have to focus on what I have to improve. My main focus now is to score points for the team and have a successful year.

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“For me, I’m very motivated to achieve P6 in the [constructors’] championship. We never actually achieved that as a team in history, so that would be a cool result.”

Pushed on whether he thinks the door is open for him at Red Bull, given that he has been overlooked by team chiefs so far, Tsunoda said: “I don’t know. I assume so, but it depends for sure on performance.

“Like we saw in our team, it’s performance-related all the time and, if I perform well, hopefully those guys will see it. You never know, I never know, I can’t control those things anyway.”

Tsunoda confirmed Red Bull have set out “a couple” of targets if he is to be considered for a promotion, and “it’s pretty clear the things I have to improve”, but then stated that even if those are achieved, “I don’t know if they will decide to put me in [the car]”.

Asked specifically if he feels that he already deserves to be racing for Red Bull, Tsunoda commented: “I don’t know about previous years, but this year, yeah.”

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As for how Lawson’s return impacts him, after the New Zealander’s impressive stand-in display in 2023, Tsunoda repeated that he is focused on his own driving and trying to help RB achieve their aforementioned constructors’ championship objective.

“It’s not my first time with team mates being changed, so it’s not a completely new environment or something that makes me feel extra pressure,” he said. “Pressure is always there, so I’ll do what I was doing previously.

“I like driving, I’m enjoying racing, I’m keeping focused, trying to make our car better with the engineers, as a whole team, working together. I like that kind of environment and I’m just enjoying that moment.”