The 2025 season can’t come soon enough for Yuki Tsunoda who will feel he has a point to prove at Racing Bulls.
Yuki Tsunoda is entering his fifth season with Racing Bulls – previously called AlphaTauri and RB – but has once again been overlooked for a promotion to race alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
Instead, that honour was gone to Liam Lawson who will become the least experienced driver to drive for the team since Robert Doornbos in 2006.
That’s despite Tsunoda outperforming each of his last three teammates, including Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo in 2024.
Tsunoda will be joined at Racing Bulls by F2 vice-champion Isack Hadjar this year and Hadjar has a reputation for being fiery on the team radio.
Between him and Tsunoda, Racing Bulls’ race engineer may have their work cut out, although the Japanese driver has been working on this aspect of his performance for some time.
Tsunoda’s communication was described as excellent during a recent Red Bull test but that wasn’t enough to convince the team that he was the right man to replace Sergio Perez.
Racing Bulls racing director Alan Permane was speaking to Autosport and was very positive about Tsunoda but wants him to learn how to communicate over the radio from McLaren star Oscar Piastri.
Despite being just 46 Grand Prix into his F1 career but acts and drivers like someone with much more experience.
Yuki Tsunoda told to listen to how Oscar Piastri communicates on the team radio
Talking about Tsunoda’s radio messages, Permane said: “When he gets frustrated he then gets frustrated at himself for getting frustrated.
“He knows it and he’s working hard on that.
“I said: ‘Listen to Oscar on the radio.’ He’s in his second year and he never gets flustered or anything like that. And he’s clearly very quick.
“You rarely hear Lando [Norris] getting frustrated, and that’s the level you need to get to.
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“One of the things we did was playback the Brazil race, a massively intense situation, and Max and his engineer are just like they’re having a cup of coffee in the afternoon together.
“That’s the benchmark and all that information is out there for these guys to work on, and that’s one of the areas we’re working on with him.
“There are hundreds of things they need to do and that’s just one small area. But he’s right in spotting that when things aren’t going well he just needs to come in and download.”
Permane explained that helping the Japanese driver reach Red Bull is still the target but Horner has concerns about Tsunoda including his temperament on the track.
Piastri is the perfect example of how to act on the team radio, as his interaction regarding Verstappen at the end of last season in Abu Dhabi highlighted.
Oscar Piastri’s iconic line about Max Verstappen during 2024 F1 season title decider
Tsunoda has been told to learn from Verstappen’s communication but the Dutchman was in the wrong during last season’s finale at Abu Dhabi.
Going into the first corner, Piastri and Verstappen collided and the Australian muttered the immortal line, ‘Yep, move of a world champion that one’.
That level of calmness, especially considering the pressure Piastri was under to help McLaren win the Constructors’ Championship, is exactly what Tsunoda needs to start doing.
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Martin Brundle was upset with Verstappen’s radio messages after his penalty, and it’s not the first time he’s felt that way.
Brundle didn’t like how Red Bull spoke to Verstappen in Austria after his collision with Lando Norris, but as Permane explained, his ability to deal with treacherous conditions in Sao Paulo highlights how good he can be when things are going his way.
Tsunoda may feel that no matter what he does, he’ll never get Red Bull’s attention, but that doesn’t mean the other teams on the grid aren’t closely monitoring his progress.
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