Lawson tells story of Tsunoda defying Marko: 'He knew what he'd done!'
F1 News
Yuki Tsunoda is known for his hot head and hilarious antics, and VCARB teammate Liam Lawson has seen this first hand. On The Red Flags Podcast, the Kiwi recalled a story from when the pair were teammates in their junior careers. Lawson revealed that Tsunoda had defied Marko's orders, but was hugely unbothered after an eventual incident!
'Yuki would always get as close as possible!'
Lawson's anecdote began as he explained his experiences with his current F1 teammate before they reached the top level. "Whenever I was in a cool-down lap and Yuki would come past me, I'd see him coming in the mirror so I'd get out of his way; he would always insist on just getting as close to me as possible. I don't know if he was trying to scare me or what it was," he began. "He did this all year. And we go to Macau; the street circuit, really bumpy. We get phone calls from Helmut. He says, whatever you do, do not crash in the first session because you need the time on the track to build up for the qualifying. Don't crash!"
The Macau Grand Prix is renowned for its danger. It tests young drivers, with the best typically excelling in their careers. Red Bull's advisor, Helmut Marko, was wary of the tracks dangers, calling them both beforehand.
'He flew straight into the barrier!'
"I'm on my cool down lap now. And I see Yuki coming in the rear view. And I'm like trying to get out of his way, obviously. I'm trying to get all the way over to the left side of the wall. I'm up against a brick wall literally, and he comes up, and as he comes past me, he just clips my front wheel, and he goes flying, just straight into the barrier!" Lawson revealed. Tsunoda's decision to ignore Marko's instructions clearly came back to bite him.
"I see him in the elevator that night. We found this iPhone game earlier in the week called Flick Tennis. And we'd been playing each other all weekend on this tennis game on our iPhones. And I looked at him, and he smiled at me. And I knew straight away that he knew exactly what he'd done. We didn't say anything. He looked at me and just goes, Flick Tennis?" The Kiwi concluded.
The pair are still close, having risen through the ranks in the Red Bull system together. As VCARB teammates, Lawson will be hoping that a repeat of this incident doesn't happen in the final three races of the 2024 season!
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