“We have an incredible rough diamond”– Helmut Marko on Red Bull’s highly-rated prospect

“We have an incredible rough diamond”– Helmut Marko on Red Bull’s shining prospect Yuki Tsunoda, who debuted in Bahrain.

Yuki Tsunoda put in an impressive performance in Bahrain, as he became the first Japanese to score points on his debut, the youngest in the paddock, and the first F1 driver born in the 21st century certainly has a bright future.

This remark has been validated by Helmut Marko, who claims that Tsunoda is a rough diamond. While praising his pace, he also pointed out his humour.

The way he goes about it, the way he makes the car fly [is fantastic]. He’s also a charismatic, funny guy. We are delighted to have him”, Marko said in a conversation with Motorsport-Total.com.

The praises for him are not limited to Red Bull’s camp; Ross Brawn recently termed him the best rookie in the past few years and tipped that he will succeed.

Red Bull switch is possible for the incredible rough diamond?

While the last two promotions from Alpha Tauri to Red Bull have failed, Tsunoda realistically has a chance to gain promotion to Red Bull in 2023, or it could be 2022 too, but Marko wants to wait first.

“We’ve had the first of 23 races, so let’s see how things develop. We have an incredible rough diamond in Yuki. We’re not going to burn him. We will look at the development and then make our decisions on time.”

Like Red Bull, Alpha Tauri has also shown impressive improvement and looks more of a midtable threat than a lower table team that facilitates development to the young Red Bull academy graduates.

In the last race, it dominated over Aston Martin and Alpine; they could have achieved a better result hadn’t Pierre Gasly took early race damage, which ousted him from the race.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More