Tsunoda can't understand Red Bull: 'Don't know what more I can do'

Last weekend, Yuki Tsnoda managed to outplace both his teammate, Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez. He placed one position above Perez and seven positions above Lawson. Tsunoda has been a driver for VCARB since 2021 and has regularly beaten his teammates. This included Daniel Ricciardo, who was ousted from VCARB with six Grands Prix remaining in 2024. Despite this, Tsunoda has never been given a chance at Red Bull despite Perez struggling to match Verstappen.

Tsunoda doesn't know where he stands with Red Bull

Yuki Tsunoda spoke to the media, including GPblog on Thursday and was asked if his performance at the Las Vegas Grand Prix changed anything with his chances at Red Bull. He mentioned his qualifying performance. "P7 is pretty good. The thing is, Pierre did a P3, so that made it a little bit less bright, but I was still P7. Between McLaren, it's pretty good, I guess, and quite close to Max as well".

He continued, "Not just last week, because I guess throughout the years, I think I've shown [I’m] quite good, and it's up to them. I'm just going to do whatever I can to hopefully there's not much reason to point it out why they don't want to put me in Red Bull, just so next two races I'm just gonna keep what I'm doing and try to show my performance consistently".

In the past, Red Bull has frequently promoted from within its ranks. This included four-time World Champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. The internally promoted Daniel Ricciardo was replaced by juniors Pierre Gasly and then Alex Albon. Red Bull dipped outside the pool to sign Perez, and now Tsunoda wonders whether it has changed tactics.

"Historically looking back, it's pretty natural that the driver in our team, if one of the drivers outperforms another driver, like this consistently in the last few years, [they] get promoted. It's kind of a natural thing. I don't know, maybe something changed, like dynamics changed. Maybe after Red Bull itself changed after Mr Mateschitz passed away. I don't know," Tsunoda wondered.

"Still one of the drivers got a driver championship and he's the team that who had success since quite a long time so, what they're doing is not a bad thing but it doesn't really make sense for me that. I've really not been in the mix much so far. I can't find much reason that they're not really, so far, talking about me. But let's see, let's see how it goes," he added.

Tsnoda also does not think the testing at Abu Dhabi will do anything to change Red Bull Racing's mind. "For now, what I can imagine test is just a test. Throughout the year so far, how they've seen me from Red Bull, I feel like this test is just a test. It's more definitely important for the next two races rather than a test.  Hopefully the test will maybe a better impression or a better picture of who I am as a driver. But I think next two races are definitely more important to be in that mix, talking about those seats". 

Tsunoda has shared his frustrations before and continues to do so. Replying to a question from GPblog, Tsunoda said: "I don't know. I don't know. Maybe please could you interview them and find out? To be honest, I don't know. And even they, whatever they say in the interview, even they say, ‘oh, Yuki is in the mix. I don't know if that's true or not, to be honest. So, I hope it's in the mix". 

On what his future holds, Tsunoda continued. "And if not, I don't know what should I do more than this, to be honest. But I'll just keep pushing. And the things I can control and those things, the Red Bull seats, they decide that. I'm sure if I be in the seat, I can definitely fight for higher constructed championship and what they want. But other things, politics, things, they decide what they want".