What Red Bull ‘immediately said’ about Yuki Tsunoda test after 127-lap Abu Dhabi outing

Yuki Tsunoda completed his first-ever test in a Red Bull car in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Tsunoda was selected to drive the RB20 as the teams took to the track for the final time.

Remarkably, even though he’s been with junior team RB (formerly AlphaTauri) for four seasons, it took lobbying from Honda to secure the opportunity. Teammate Liam Lawson has completed numerous Red Bull outings, as has academy driver and F2 runner-up Isack Hadjar.

Tsunoda is battling Lawson for the spot alongside Max Verstappen in 2025. Red Bull are expected to announce later this week that Sergio Perez has lost his seat.

The test, then, was a final opportunity for the Japanese driver to make his case on track. It comes at the end of a satisfactory season for the 24-year-old.

The late-season transition from Daniel Ricciardo to Lawson makes direct teammate comparisons difficult. But Tsunoda was responsible for scoring 30 of the team’s 46 points (or around 65%).

He was particularly impressive over a single lap, winning his intra-team qualifying battles by a combined score of 17-6. And perhaps most importantly, 12th was the best championship position of his career to date.

Red Bull insist they weren’t evaluating Yuki Tsunoda’s lap times in Abu Dhabi test

23 different drivers featured at Yas Marina on Tuesday, with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all running three. Charles Leclerc set the fastest time, just over a tenth ahead of former teammate Carlos Sainz, who made his debut for Williams.

Tsunoda was only 17th quickest, 1.1 seconds off Leclerc’s benchmark. Based on his displays this year, that doesn’t seem representative of his ultimate pace.

Indeed, according to Motorsport.com’s Ronald Vording, Red Bull ‘immediately said’ that ‘it was not about’ lap times. They were more focused on testing parts for 2025, as well as understanding the revised tyre compounds.

Tsunoda may have wanted to complete an all-out performance run to show Red Bull what he was capable of. But the team may have not viewed that as the best use of their time.

How quick was Yuki Tsunoda compared to Sergio Perez?

Perhaps it’s a worrying sign that Tsunoda wasn’t afforded a low-fuel run on the fastest compounds. Red Bull don’t necessarily have that data available given his lack of running in their machinery, though they will be able to consult RB’s telemetry of course.

Perhaps this was simply an effort to placate Honda and prepare for Verstappen’s title defence, rather than a full evaluation of Tsunoda. But the engineers would inevitably have learned a great deal about the 91-point driver over his 127 laps.

Red Bull didn’t hold a media session afterwards because they were ‘afraid’ of questions about their 2025 line-up. Tsunoda has been particularly outspoken on the issue.

Perez’s qualifying lap was 1.4 seconds quicker Tsunoda, but again it seems he didn’t complete a comparable run. If the decision was made on raw speed alone, he may get the nod, but Red Bull are assessing a comprehensive package.