The second cockpit alongside Max Verstappen at Formula 1 team Red Bull has become more and more a spin seat. The new teammate of the Dutchman has its place for now, as Dr. Helmut Marko now confirmed.
“Yuki Tsunoda will finish the season,” says Red Bull Motor sports director Dr. Helmut Marko unmistakably clear in conversation with “formel1.de”. Another driver change should therefore be excluded. Red Bull assumes that the Japanese will “master”.
Tsunoda is moving up to Red Bull for the first time at the Suzuka Grand Prix, after driving for the B team for four years. After two unsuccessful races, rookie Liam Lawson has to go to the second row.
“Yuki is really strong after his fourth season, also as a overall personality,” emphasized Marko: “He is physically much stronger, appears confidently.”
That is why Tsunoda is only now moving to the side of Verstappen
The background to the cockpit change is that with Liam Lawson on the side of Max Verstappen you would have had fewer chances of defending the title in the driver’s World Cup. “We want to win the fifth World Cup title with Max. The car is difficult and not the most fastest. So it is very important that you have a second driver with whom we can strategically work in the races,” the Graz explained the decision that the “unanimously” was made by the Red Bull bosses.
At the same time, Marko defended himself against allegations that Lawson was “degraded”. Rather, the 23-year-old now comes to a team that has a “very competitive car” “that is easier to act than the RB21”.
The fact that Tsunoda had not been promoted after last season was due to its achievements, Marko also explained. At the end of 2024, the Japanese was not as reliable as he presented himself in the winter tests, in Melbourne and in Shanghai. Tsunoda had “up and down”, according to the 81-year-old, “for example the two crashs in Mexico. He was just not as stable as he is now.”