Yuki Tsunoda lands Sergio Perez dig in Red Bull ‘politics’ at play claim

Yuki Tsunoda is confident he would do a better job for Red Bull as the Constructors’ title continues to slip away, but says “politics” are at play.

Tsunoda has raced in Formula 1 with the Red Bull second team since 2021, but has seldom been regarded as a genuine contender to step up to the main Red Bull team, despite delivering arguably his most impressive campaign yet in F1 2024.

Yuki Tsunoda: ‘Maybe Red Bull changed after Mr. Mateschitz passed away’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Tsunoda scored his joint-best F1 2024 result in Las Vegas with P7, where he split the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, following that up with P9 in Las Vegas and generating momentum with two rounds of F1 2024 left to go.

All the while, pressure is mounting on Sergio Perez at Red Bull, with his struggles for form fuelling speculation that he will be shown the door come the end of F1 2024.

So, does Tsunoda think he is doing enough to make himself an attractive Perez alternative for Red Bull? He is struggling to think of reasons not to put him in the F1 2025 seat.

“P7 is pretty good. The thing is Pierre [Gasly] did a P3, so that makes it a little bit less bright,” Tsunoda told the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Qatar.

“But I was still P7. Between McLaren is pretty good I guess and quite close to Max [Verstappen] as well.

“I mean, not just last weekend, I guess throughout the years, I think I’m showing quite good, and it’s up to them, and I’ve just got to do whatever I can to… There’s not much reasons to point out why they don’t want to put me in the Red Bull.

“So the next two races I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and try to show my performance consistently.”

Perez is without a podium since April’s Chinese Grand Prix and remained in the RB20 despite strong rumours that he would be axed over the summer break.

Red Bull now face the increasingly real prospect of losing their grasp on the Constructors’ title as they sit P3, 53 points behind leaders McLaren, with two rounds to go. Ferrari are 29 points ahead of Red Bull.

But, if Tsunoda was in the Red Bull alongside their four-time World Champion Max Verstappen instead, he says Red Bull would not be in this predicament, but “politics” are afoot.

Asked if he is a real contender to replace Perez, Tsunoda replied: “I don’t know. Please could you interview them and find out?

“To be honest, I don’t know. Even whatever they say in the interview, even they say, ‘Yuki is in the mix’, I don’t know if that’s the truth or not to be honest.

“So, yeah, I hope I’m in that mix, and if not, I don’t know what I should do more than this, to be honest.

“I’ll just keep pushing and things I can control. And those things, the Red Bull seat, they decide everything. I’m sure if I’m in the seat, I can fight for a higher Constructors’ Championship [position] and what they want.

“But, other things, politics things. They decide what they want.

“Historically looking back, it’s pretty natural that the driver, for example, in our team, if one driver outperforms the other driver like this consistently the last few years, you get promoted. It’s kind of a natural thing.

“Maybe something changed. The dynamics maybe changed, Red Bull itself changed after Mr. Mateschitz passed away.

“I mean, one of the drivers has got a Drivers’ Championship, and this is a team that has had success since quite a long time, so what they’re doing is I guess not a bad thing, but it doesn’t really make sense for me that I didn’t really be in the mix much so far.

“I don’t know much. For myself at least, I can’t find much reasons why they’re not really, so far, talking about me heavily.”

F1 2024 head-to-heads going into Qatar GP

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

Tsunoda had the beating of initial F1 2023 team-mate Nyck de Vries before Red Bull brought Daniel Ricciardo back into the fold, with the view of working his way back into a Red Bull seat alongside Verstappen.

However, Ricciardo was dismissed after the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix after struggling up against Tsunoda, who feels Red Bull did not hold up their end of the bargain.

Asked if it is frustrating that the 22 races so far in F1 2024 have not been enough to position himself to negotiate with Red Bull, Tsunoda replied: “I got used to it.

“It’s just throughout the year, I thought what I’ve done, especially since Daniel, you know, if one or the other goes really well, I thought is going to Red Bull or whatever, they really haven’t. And probably since last year a little bit as well.

“So, more I just got used to it and unfortunately this is the situation, or I guess, dynamics how Red Bull works I guess. Maybe they’re facing difficult things, different things that probably I don’t know, or we don’t know, in the background.

“I’ve just got to force them with my results or my performance, ‘We really need Yuki in our seat, otherwise, things will change’. I’ve just got to force them with my performance.”

Tsunoda was therefore asked by PlanetF1.com whether spearheading VCARB to a P6 finish in the Constructors’ could be a target set to get the Red Bull promotion.

“The Constructors’ is not just about me,” he replied, “but I will feel definitely responsible as a driver, myself, if we are able to achieve P6, because maybe a couple of races I could have done better, but I’m sure every team, every driver does have those situations.

“And if they say, ‘Okay, P6 is the task that you have to be in the Red Bull seat’, it’s a pretty difficult thing to say, because the team championship is combined between the team’s drivers, not just individual drivers.

“But I’ll do as much as I can. And I take it as that way, I guess. And hopefully, if I can score P6, that will give a better reason to put me in the Red Bull seat.”

Tsunoda will at least get his first taste of Red Bull machinery after the F1 2024 season as he represents Red Bull in the Abu Dhabi test.

But, while that will give the team the chance to assess him in their current RB20, he feels what he does on the track with VCARB carries more weight.

“For now, what I can imagine is the test is just a test,” he said. “Throughout the year, how they’ve seen me so far Red Bull, I feel like it’s just a test.

“It’s more definitely important for the next two races, rather than the test.

“Hopefully, the test will maybe be a bit more, I guess, better impression, or better picture of exactly who I am as a driver. But I think the next two races are definitely more important to be in that mix, in the talking about those seats.”

Read next: Senior F1 steward speaks out on FIA sack in ‘running out of people’ warning