Tsunoda on Red Bull: ‘Hopefully I can have a bit more commitment from them’

Yuki Tsunoda hopes to have “a bit more commitment” from Red Bull, but is “happy” with Visa Cash App RB as Laurent Mekies admits Tsunoda could be “difficult to ignore” as a prospect.

Yuki Tsunoda has gone from strength to strength in recent years throughout his Formula 1 career. The Japanese driver has taken steps to improve his performance, which have been evident in his results this season.

With Daniel Ricciardo as a partner, who has been criticised as of late, Tsunoda has definitely been the stronger driver. So far, after nine rounds, Tsunoda has 19 points in the Drivers’ Championship, 10 more than Ricciardo. He has only retired from a race once, which was the Chinese Grand Prix, and his qualifying performance has seen him make it to Q3 all but twice.

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Tsunoda re-signed with Visa Cash App RB. Days earlier, Red Bull announced that Sergio Perez was in fact staying with the Milton Keynes-based team, meaning there was no chance for Tsunoda to make the jump up to the top team.

As reported by motorsport.com, whilst Tsunoda is content to remain with RB, he is hoping for more from Red Bull. The young Japanese driver said:

“Obviously, I’m already committed to Red Bull a lot and hopefully I can have a bit more commitment from them.

“There’s an ongoing discussion and I want to make sure first of all we’re on the same page with Red Bull, after that we’ll see. But I’m happy with RB.

“Even these two years [Perez] has to still perform and in this kind of environment, anything can happen. So congratulations to him, but for me, I just keep focusing on what I’m doing and just proving myself.

“Hopefully, Red Bull will see more of my progress and my potential performance and maybe [it] can change in the future.”

LET’S GOOOO YUKI!!! P7!! ? pic.twitter.com/3JlNwKBlUy

— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) May 5, 2024

His development ‘came a little bit later’ than expected

Helmut Marko, an advisor to Red Bull, has also weighed in on Tsunoda’s career trajectory. The Austrian told motorsport.com his views on Tsunoda, following Perez’s poor run of performance in the previous three rounds. He commented on what Tsunoda must do to continue to improve, saying:

“He has to continue to perform like he does now. Let’s see what the future brings then. His development is really good, although it came a little bit later than we expected, but he is now a top driver I would say.

“This is the first season in which Yuki is consistently fast and he is controlling his emotions, which was his biggest problem before. To be fair to him, he had always flashes of speed, but this year besides the China race, he is consistently fast. Of course, it is changing his profile.”

Tsunoda will be ‘difficult to ignore’

Tsunoda’s current Team Principal, Laurent Mekies, also commented on his performance. With the contract extension for the Japanese driver, RB’s Team Principal admitted he is impressed with Tsunoda.

“He has been doing a phenomenal step this year, which went well beyond out expectations. We were expecting a step but in a fourth year doing such a step changes is very impressive, both in terms of pace and outside of the car.

“[His progress] is 360 degrees. It’s not just maturity. The pure speed takes steps, the dialogue with the engineers takes a step, the calmness takes a step. It is a superb feeling to witness that and it’s also our responsibility to ask ourselves the question: ‘How many steps like that does he still have inside him?’”

Mekies continued talking about Tsunoda as a Red Bull driver and said that if things continue in this current manner, Tsunoda will definitely be a prospect that’s “difficult to ignore.” He said:

“Look, he’s a Red Bull driver, so he needs to have the ambition to go to Red Bull Racing. He has it, and he’s doing everything he can to prove that.

“He’s ambitious, we are ambitious. We are pushing each other. If he does another step like that next year, he will be difficult to ignore for anyone.”

Headline Image: GettyImages