Red Bull must make a decision on their Formula 1 driver pairing for the 2025 season in the coming weeks, and it looks to be a battle between two drivers for the final seat.
Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda spent the last six races of the season as teammates as Visa Cash App RB, fighting to prove who was more worthy of a promotion to the senior team.
Tsunoda tested for Red Bull in Abu Dhabi’s post-season running, but his pace didn’t stand out as anything spectacular.
Lawson looked overwhelmed in Abu Dhabi, but continued to run for VCARB in the test and was two-tenths faster than his Japanese rival in a much slower car.
Speed won’t have been the only basis that the teams were assessing them on, proven by Red Bull staff grading Tsunoda excellent in one area that team boss Christian Horner had doubts – feedback.
Whoever wins the most plaudits and convinces more people that they are the correct choice for the drive will likely win out, so it’s a step in the right direction for Tsunoda.
Juan Pablo Montoya delivers ‘guarantee’ that Yuki Tsunoda drove Red Bull F1 car too slowly
Ending the day’s running 17th out of 23 runners in a Red Bull looks quite bad from afar, however, nobody is sure what sort of run plan the team were on.
Red Bull immediately said Tsunoda’s day was not about chasing times – indicating that they were keen on gathering data on race runs to assess his pace.
That’s when any glaring deficiencies compared to Max Verstappen are going to show up, and it also would have given them a platform to compare him with Sergio Perez.
Granted the Mexican retired early during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but he will have completed similar running during Friday’s practice sessions.
Speaking on W Radio Colombia’s YouTube channel, ex-Williams and McLaren F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya said that Tsunoda was too comfortable and didn’t go fast enough during the test.
“One feels very comfortable until Max is driving faster than one. At a moment, when Max is faster than one and one has to push a car that felt comfortable or tenths more, there will come a point where it is not so comfortable. When one is comfortable in the car, the car does not go fast. I guarantee.”
Can Yuki Tsunoda develop anymore as an F1 driver at VCARB?
Tsunoda has spent four seasons at VCARB now – conducting 87 starts and gathering plenty of experience along the way.
Ex-teammate Pierre Gasly spent 98 races with them before moving on to Alpine to achieve bigger things, after an opportunity with Red Bull in the middle of that stint too.
READ MORE: Why Red Bull will ‘never’ again approach five-podium driver to partner Max Verstappen
So, surely Tsunoda has developed enough and has enough experience to warrant making the step up to the senior team?
RB even think Tsunoda is at Carlos Sainz’s level as an all-round driver now – putting him on a level with a proven race-winner and former Ferrari driver.
Many fans campaigned for Sainz to get a chance with Red Bull, but if what the team has said is true and Tsunoda is at his level, he deserves that chance just as much – if not more for his service to the junior team.
