The £800k-a-year F1 driver now trying to ‘force the issue’ to race for Red Bull next season

Red Bull Racing know that they have a serious decision looming at the end of this season.

Helmut Marko revealed after Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix that stakeholders will meet this winter to discuss the Dutchman’s teammate.

Marko said, via ORF, “There will be a meeting after Abu Dhabi and the result of this meeting will be presented to the shareholders and they will then decide what the driver situation for both teams will look like for next year.”

This could spell bad news for Sergio Perez who hasn’t lived up to expectations this season.

Perez sits eighth in the Drivers’ Championship with no sign that his position is going to improve during the final two races of the season.

The 34-year-old is on a 17-race run without a Grand Prix podium finish, while Verstappen has maintained a lead in the championship throughout that time.

Journalist Ben Anderson was speaking on The Race Podcast and believes RB driver Yuki Tsunoda has spotted an opportunity to earn a promotion into Red Bull’s works team.

The £800k-a-year driver may have less than 100 career points to his name but must feel he’s in the strongest position so far to finally earn that coveted seat alongside Verstappen.

Yuki Tsunoda trying to ‘force the issue’ to earn Red Bull promotion for 2025

Talking about the Red Bull driver situation, Anderson said: “Decent performance as well [from RB], certainly from Tsunoda, he was on it.

“He looks like he’s really trying to force the issue with Red Bull to get himself in that that Perez seat, even if it’s on like a race-by-race trial basis next year.

“Liam Lawson, a bit more difficult for him. Obviously his first time at Vegas, he was struggling to get the brakes working well, struggling with the tyres as everyone was, but maybe it was a bit more pronounced for him.

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“[The track] doesn’t reward anyone with a particularly attacking style, I don’t think.

“When you’ve got that limitation at the front, you need to be a bit more contained.

“But yeah, a decent weekend for them and obviously they’re throwing everything at trying to win this battle for sixth. So we’ll see if it pays off over the final two.

“But I don’t think that livery will stay for the final two races.”

Yuki Tsunoda had a disrupted start to the Las Vegas Grand Prix after US Customs incident

Tsunoda has scored 30 points this season and is in an intense battle with Nico Hulkenberg to finish in the top half of the championship for the first time in his F1 career.

However, despite adding two more points to his tally in Las Vegas, he didn’t have the smoothest start to the weekend.

Tsunoda was questioned while going through US customs and said in an interview before the race, via the BBC, “Luckily, they let me in after a couple of discussions.

“Well, a lot of discussions, actually. But yeah, I nearly got sent back home.

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“Suddenly he [the official] just put me in the room and when I had a conversation I was like, ‘Can I bring the person that I’m going to travel with?’ Maybe he can help a little bit to explain a bit more about myself and the situation in Formula 1?

“But they didn’t allow me to bring them or even call anyone. I wanted to call the team as well or maybe F1 so they can help me. But in that room, you can’t do anything.”

Despite his disrupted preparations, Tsunoda still beat his teammate Liam Lawson and Perez during the race.

Senior Red Bull staff have question marks over Tsunoda and he’s already signed a deal to spend a fifth season with RB next year.

However, that could easily change if Christian Horner changes his mind with Marko confirming Tsunoda is a Red Bull candidate earlier in the year.