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Verstappen the reason Tsunoda did not get the chance at Red Bull Racing?
Yuki Tsunoda has ended up missing out on a promotion to Red Bull Racing, after the team decided to let Sergio Perez go. It was close, but Liam Lawson was the preferred choice. According to top advisor Helmut Marko, that is because the team think it could be hard for the Japanese driver to become the teammate Max Verstappen.
After the last Grand Prix weekend in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull still had an important decision to make. The question was which VCARB driver would get the promotion, after the team decided to let Perez go. The management finally chose Lawson, although he has 11 Grands Prix starts under his belt.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko both pointed out that the two drivers were close in terms of level on track, and so Lawson was chosen mainly because of his potential to develop even more. After all, Tsunoda already has four seasons in the series, while Lawson is yet to complete one.
Why did Red Bull choose Lawson?
Yet another factor also played a role in the decision. Namely, Tsunoda's emotional outbursts. "Those have improved, but still play a role. Then he just loses control," Marko revealed to Sport.de. With Max Verstappen having the other seat at Red Bull Racing, the management felt that was too big a gamble.
"We believe it would cause emotional problems for Tsunoda if he found out next to Max that he could not beat him, or come close at all. That things would not go as he would expect beforehand."
Tsunoda himself was anything but shocked by the news. According to Marko, the Japanese driver had already seen the news coming, as Tsunoda hinted several times in the weeks before. Tsunoda had been annoyed by the lack of talks with Marko and Horner all year, and therefore did not really believe that he would have a chance. In the end, that turned out to be the case.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
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