The 2024 Formula 1 season has enhanced plenty of drivers’ reputations while also proving to be career-ending for several experienced racers.
Unfortunately for Daniel Ricciardo and Logan Sargeant, their time in F1 came to an end before the campaign finished, with RB and Williams forced into a change of personnel.
Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto stepped up and have put themselves into a position where they’re now battling for the final available seat on the grid.
Red Bull are interested in Lawson and Colapinto either joining Yuki Tsunoda at V-CARB next year or even potentially replacing Sergio Perez if his performance doesn’t improve.
When the campaign ends, several established drivers will be moving on after being replaced by up-and-coming rookies.
Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are all making way and the F1 grid will have a very different feel in 2025.
David Coulthard was speaking on The Red Flags Podcast about another current driver he once thought didn’t deserve their place on the grid.
Amongst all the chaos within the Red Bull family, Tsunoda has managed to nail down a fifth season with RB next year, even if he doesn’t know the identity of his teammate yet.
Coulthard has admitted that he once thought the Japanese driver didn’t warrant a seat in Formula 1, but has changed his mind after this season.
David Coulthard has changed his mind on Yuki Tsunoda’s Formula 1 status
Coulthard was reminded of the time he once said Tsunoda should ‘pack his bags to go home’, via F1I, earlier in his F1 career and replied: “Well, look, everyone deserves the opportunity to defend themselves.
“There was a point in Yuki’s early career where I don’t think he was doing enough to warrant the title of being a Grand Prix driver.
“I think he has done an exceptional job this year. He’s sent one of the Grand Prix-winning drivers and one of the fans’ favourites home packing in Daniel and he’s got Liam there who I think has done a very solid job coming in.
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“So, in terms of who’s been there long enough to deserve the chance [to race for Red Bull], you would say Yuki.
“But, the team may well go, well do we think Yuki’s going to beat Max and therefore if we don’t think he’s going to beat Max, what’s that going to do him and therefore who’s going to be our experienced team leader at our sister team?”
Yuki Tsunoda running out of time to earn Red Bull promotion
As Coulthard suggests, Tsunoda has improved significantly since making his Formula 1 debut.
However, the ultimate goal for any RB driver is to race for Red Bull one day and right now the 24-year-old doesn’t appear to be in contention.
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Helmut Marko named Tsunoda as a Red Bull candidate, but there is a lot of trepidation about whether he’s cut out to race alongside Max Verstappen.
RB are expected to drop Tsunoda in 2025 due to the relationship between the team and his backer Honda coming to an end.
He will have more than 100 Grand Prix under his belt by then but that might not be enough to earn him another seat on the grid.
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