Yuki Tsunoda questions if what Red Bull told him about replacing Sergio Perez is ‘true or not’

Yuki Tsunoda is desperate to prove to Red Bull that he is the one who should replace Sergio Perez yet the Visa Cash App RB driver questions if what they told him is ‘true’.

Doubts continue to linger about whether Perez will still be Max Verstappen’s teammate with Red Bull next year or not. The 34-year-old has regularly underdelivered this year and is likely to cost his team from Milton Keynes the defence of their constructors’ championship crown.

Red Bull go into this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix chasing McLaren and Ferrari by 53 and 29 points respectively with two rounds left. With the Lusail International Circuit even staging an F1 Sprint, it is possible for McLaren to win the title before next week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Yuki Tsunoda questions if Red Bull are honest with his chance to replace Sergio Perez

Verstappen winning his fourth drivers’ title has even, once again, led Red Bull’s constructors’ championship bid with 403 of their 555 points so far. Perez has only posted 152 to be eighth in the drivers’ table, having even only scored 21 in the eight rounds since the summer break.

So, motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has confirmed that Red Bull will discuss sacking Perez after the Abu Dhabi GP. The Mexican has already survived similar discussions this term after Christian Horner gave Perez a contract extension for 2025 with an option for 2026 this June.

Perez wants £16m for Red Bull to end his contract early, and consistently insists that he will be with the team in 2025. But amid the doubts Tsunoda is desperate to show with Visa Cash App RB why he should be the one to replace Perez, with Liam Lawson the most likely option.

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Yet even if Red Bull tell Tsunoda he is in the mix to replace Perez if the Mexican’s seat opens up, the 24-year-old questions if it is the truth. The Japanese driver is sure he can do a better job than Perez for Red Bull’s constructors’ title bid, but feels other factors count against him.

“Even if they say, ‘Yuki is in the race’, I honestly don’t know if that’s true or not,” declared Tsunoda, via quotes by Motorsport-Total. “I hope I am but I don’t know. And if not, then I don’t know what else I can do. I’ll just keep pushing and Red Bull will decide.

“Sure, when I’m in the car I can definitely fight for a better position in the constructors’ championship. But there are other things, [like] politics. They decide what they want.”

Helmut Marko questions if Yuki Tsunoda is Red Bull material

One aspect counting against the Visa Cash App RB driver in his bid to replace Perez is Marko feels Tsunoda lacks the ‘continuity and stability’ to drive for Red Bull. The Austrian respected his displays in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and Las Vegas Grand Prix but they followed errors.

Other chiefs at Red Bull view Tsunoda’s Honda ties as a ‘fundamental problem’, as well, with the Kanagawa native a product of their engine provider’s driver academy instead of the Red Bull Junior Team. Honda will split with Red Bull after the 2025 season and join Aston Martin.

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But Tsunoda wonders if his hopes for a promotion from Visa Cash App RB to Red Bull would be different were Dietrich Mateschitz still alive. The Austrian businessman who owned Red Bull died in 2022 and there has not been a promotion from Faenza since Alex Albon in 2019.

“In the past, if one driver in our team consistently beat the other, he was promoted. That’s quite natural,” Tsunoda said referring to Albon, Pierre Gasly, Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat and Sebastian Vettel. “I don’t know – maybe something has changed since Mr Mateschitz died, the dynamic for example.”