Confused as to why Red Bull continue to overlook him, Yuki Tsunoda deserves his chance alongside Max Verstappen.

That is the verdict of Pierre Gasly – a former team-mate to both Tsunoda and Verstappen – yet he warns the Japanese racer that when it comes to Red Bull, their decisions go beyond just outright driver performance.

Why hasn’t Yuki Tsunoda been promoted by Red Bull?

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The Red Bull driver stable has been a popular topic for debate in F1 2024 with speculation swirling over the future of Sergio Perez who has endured a torrid season alongside newly-crowned four-time World Champion Verstappen.

And it appears that it is now game over for Perez at Red Bull, with the expectation being that Abu Dhabi will be his final race.

Tsunoda and Liam Lawson – team-mates at Red Bull’s junior outfit VCARB – are regarded as the leading contenders to replace Perez, with Tsunoda ahead of the Qatar GP venting his frustrations and confusion over why – despite being with the Red Bull second team since 2021 – he has never been seen as a serious contender for a promotion.

With Red Bull now consigned to a P3 finish in the Constructors’ Championship, Tsunoda had told the media, including PlanetF1.com: “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.”

Tsunoda has delivered arguably his strongest season yet in F1 2024 and based on performance, Gasly, who was Tsunoda’s team-mate from 2021-22, believes the Japanese racer should be getting the nod.

But, he warns, it is not that simple with Red Bull.

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Asked by the media, including PlanetF1.com, whether Red Bull should give Tsunoda a shot, Gasly replied: “It’s a tough question. I think performance-wise, he deserves a chance. He seems to have improved a lot from the moment he came.

“He’s been performing pretty strongly, I would say, this season and also last year. He’s beaten his team-mate. From this point of view, I think, yeah, looking at the programme, the Red Bull programme, it will make sense to give him a shot.

“But, you know, at the end, ultimately, we know there is not only performance that comes down to that decision. It’s a top team. And, yeah, it depends on what Christian [Horner, team principal] and Helmut [Marko, senior advisor and driver programme boss] wants to do with it.

“Personally, yeah, I’d like to see him and see what he does there. But I know it’s not that easy. And if you ask me performance-wise, yeah, I think he deserved a chance.”

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