Red Bull have continuously seemed to have ignored Yuki Tsunoda and they may have done that again by giving Liam Lawson the nod over him. At the beginning of the 2024 season, Red Bull put Daniel Ricciardo in the RB seat to prepare the Australian for a possible promotion to the senior team.
That plan, however, turned on its head as Ricciardo failed to impress. As a result, Red Bull then decided to replace Ricciardo with Lawson, hoping that such a move would help prepare the New Zealander for a possible promotion.
However, once again Tsunoda emerged head and shoulders against his teammate, out-qualifying Lawson 10 to 1 (including their races in 2023). In these 11 races, Tsunoda finished ahead five times and scored eight points against six by Lawson.
Yuki Tsunoda has a combined 34-12 qualifying H2H against his teammates over the last two seasons.
10-1 vs. Lawson
16-9 vs. Ricciardo
8-2 vs. De VriesUnderstand the dynamics of why Yuki was passed over by Red Bull but he’s done everything asked to earn that drive. pic.twitter.com/sVIQo7ge7E
— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) December 19, 2024
Therefore, Tsunoda was understandably expecting the Red Bull call once they decided to get rid of Perez. Much to his disappointment, it was Lawson who got the promotion.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner broke the news personally to Tsunoda. As he appeared for an interview with talkSport, Horner faced the obvious question – Was Tsunoda disappointed?
“Well of course he is. I spoke to him a short while ago and he’s more motivated than ever to, you know, he wants to prove us wrong. I said to him, ‘Look, this sport moves so quickly, this industry moves so quickly that he just needs to keep doing a great job in the Racing Bulls team,” Horner answered.
Despite putting together consistently good performances for the better part of 2024, Tsunoda was never considered to be a serious candidate for the Red Bull seat. This made many experts and F1 journalists wonder — what more did he need to do to prove his worth to Red Bull’s top brass?
Why Lawson over Tsunoda? Horner reveals
Tsunoda joined Red Bull’s sister team back in 2021 and has since then shown steady progress. However, a factor that many feel goes against him is his proximity to Honda. Tsunoda, not being a Red Bull junior, would therefore never get a preference over someone like Lawson.
Horner, however, claims the Japanese driver was impressive during Red Bull’s test and the engineers recognized his good work as well. Lawson, though, trumped him with his ‘resilience’, which was a crucial weapon to have in one’s arsenal when pipped against Verstappen.
“It’s just we felt that Liam’s trajectory together with his mental strength and resilience were the right assets to partner Max next year because arguably, that seat is the toughest in Formula One,” Horner said.
Rating ‘resilience’ over results may raise questions about politics between Red Bull and Honda. The engine manufacturer is slated to join Aston Martin in 2026 and that could make Tsunoda’s place redundant at Red Bull. Will that really turn out to be the case? Only time will tell.
