With Kiwi Liam Lawson’s Red Bull tenure already cut painfully short, Yuki Tsunoda is the next driver in the hot seat. Alongside four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, there is nowhere to hide for the home-town hero in front of his adoring Japanese fans this weekend.
However, even after being painfully slow in the first two race weekends of 2025, the reigning world champion still disagreed with the decision to oust Lawson after just two races in the Red Bull. “He (Verstappen) disagreed with the hasty decision because he kept saying the car was just so difficult to drive,” said Red Bull team advisor Dr. Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper.
RED BULL GIVES TSUNODA THE NOD
“That’s his opinion, of course, and that’s a good thing. But you cannot become world champion as a one-man team,” Marko said. The Austrian also admits that promoting Lawson ahead of Tsunoda was a mistake. But he traces the decision back to Mexico last year, where the ‘decisive phase’ of who should replace Sergio Perez coincided with one particular incident.
“You see, Adrian Newey was furious at the time, because Tsunoda drove into Pierre Gasly’s car. And parts of the cars on the track damaged the underbody of Verstappen’s car, which cost him the race,” revealed Marko.
NEWEY FURIOUS
From that point on Yuki was persona non grata to Newey. But, of course, Newey is no longer with Red Bull, having moved to Aston Martin this season. And Marko says that Yuki has worked hard on himself and his professionalism, too. “He has changed management and has simply grown up. I heard him say he’s already expecting a podium finish in Japan. But I’d be happy if Max made it onto the podium. Let’s wait and see,” Marko commented.
Likewise, Marko says the Red Bull car needs to be made quicker overall. “We need to quickly deliver updates that actually work. To win a fifth World Championship in a row, these improvements definitely have to happen in the next five races,” Marko concluded – with GMM
HOW DO YOU THINK TSUNODA WILL FARE IN HIS HOME RACE?
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