“Definitely deserve that seat”: Yuki Tsunoda makes his feelings clear about the Red Bull candidature
Yuki Tsunoda believes Red Bull should evaluate his performance over the entirety of the 2024 season when considering candidates for the 2025 seat. Speaking to media outlets, including Sportskeeda, the VCARB driver stated that he deserves a promotion to the senior team based on the majority of his performances this year.
Despite outperforming both the experienced Daniel Ricciardo and rookie Liam Lawson, Tsunoda has not been strongly linked to a Red Bull Racing seat for 2025. Speculation suggests that the two VCARB drivers are in a direct shootout for Sergio Perez’s position. However, rumors about Franco Colapinto being in contention for the seat also emerged.
Addressing the media ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas GP, Tsunoda expressed frustration at Red Bull’s apparent reluctance to take his candidacy seriously. While he confidently asserted his qualifications for the role, he noted that drivers he has outperformed have been more frequently discussed in the narrative surrounding the seat. Tsunoda emphasized that his employers should assess his season as a whole rather than focusing on isolated performances, such as the Mexican GP weekend, when evaluating his potential for promotion.
Asked by Sportskeeda if his candidacy for the 2025 Red Bull seat needed to be evaluated across the course of 24 races, Yuki Tsunoda said:
“Yeah, I mean 100%. I mean, I always say that, you know, like, definitely I deserve that seat and I can't say more than that. There's thats up to them.”
Further speaking about his situation with the Red Bull seat, he added:
“I mean it’s thought's already happening from when Daniel was teammate. So I mean this was like a, that Liam came in and suddenly he's up. So to be honest it’s just usual story in that team to be honest or Red Bull family Yeah, I mean Mexico wasn't ideal, but at the same time, qualifying wasn't but definitely my bad. And for sure is the thing I definitely didn't help myself. But in the race, you know like different story. I had a good start and if I'm able to make that call it probably I was P7 after the turn one or even P6 so and I think you know they understand as well those side. But yeah I mean it's a usual story, it's like part of the part of this motorsports Formula One especially our team and it is what it is and I don't really think about it anymore.”
Yuki Tsunoda hopes VCARB is in a better position to deliver a solid result in Las Vegas
Yuki Tsunoda is optimistic that VCARB can deliver a stronger performance at the 2024 Las Vegas GP compared to its struggles last season. The Japanese driver expressed hope that lessons learned from last year’s event will help the team refine its setups and better adapt to the unique challenges posed by the circuit.
Acknowledging the Las Vegas street track's distinctive nature and low temperatures, the 22-year-old emphasized the importance of finding innovative solutions to address the team’s performance issues. Tsunoda remains focused on leveraging these insights to improve its competitiveness on one of the calendar's most challenging and unpredictable tracks.
Asked about the cold weather conditions and performance expectations at the Las Vegas race weekend, Yuki Tsunoda:
“It'll be, especially set up wise it will be different, you know, like a lot of things that probably, we’ve never experienced or, you know. Actually, a lot of things that, you know, we need to experience well in the previous tracks, for example, especially in the summertime, you probably can be a player to actually make the car faster. So I think we have to think different way to make it work in this in this, especially A unique track and unique conditions. So we didn't have a good experience last year, but I think that experience actually gave us a bit more big idea to what we could have done better. So yeah, hopefully it'll be it all works.”
Yuki Tsunoda has accounted for 28 of the 44 points scored by the VCARB team this season. Despite his contributions, the Faenza-based outfit has slipped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, overtaken by Haas and Alpine over the last four races.
Since the Mexican GP, VCARB has faced challenges in optimizing setups at circuits where they have traditionally performed well. They now sit two points behind Haas and five points adrift of Alpine, who vaulted to sixth in the standings following an impressive double podium finish in Brazil.