Yuki Tsunoda, the milestone of maturity and Red Bull ambition

The communication from Helmut Marko and Christian Horner surrounding the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls was a little overrated last year. The Anglo-Austrian couple expected the Australian to beat Yuki tsunoda and that he purely and simply takes leadership from Faenza, so as to regain a place in the sun at Red Bull for 2025.

A few months later, this speech makes you smile. Firstly because the Australian is unfortunately nothing more than a shadow of himself since his time with McLaren, but above all because there is a driver at Racing Bulls who continues to progress, named Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese is undoubtedly one of the most underrated drivers on the grid currently, given his performances.

A start to the season to the advantage of Yuki Tsunoda at RB

The ball of immature nerves that explode the hertz of his radio has not completely disappeared, but the impeccable driver with a very solid point of speed has shown himself much more often since last year. Doctor Jekyll has taken over Mister Hyde! In Bahrain, when he was told to let Daniel Ricciardo pass so that the Aussie could try to get an anonymous 12th place thanks to fresher tires, he couldn't help but scream at the top of his voice, exasperated. .

Was he fundamentally wrong? The fact remains that in Jeddah, at a press conference, he apologized flatly and said that he should definitely stop acting in this way, without us really knowing if his statements were remotely guided by the communications department. from the stable or if he really meant them. His real answer? He stuck to half a second of DR3 in qualifying the next day, progressing to Q3 unlike his teammate, before beating him the next day despite not having any points.

Yuki Tsunoda retained a lot of affection for his former teammate Pierre Gasly. © Frédéric Le Floc'h / DPPI

Bis repeated in Melbourne, on the land of the thirty-year-old from Perth, with a new passage in Q3, when the former Red Bull driver did not even make the cut for Q1. A performance validated the next day in the race, less than a week after Marko praised his talent in the flying lap exercise, while regretting his inability to finish the job in the race. The Japanese took the 6 points for 7th place, finishing in a top 10 which is not really within the reach of Racing Bulls on a regular basis.

“I would say that I am very, very satisfied with my performance, slipped Yuki after Melbourne. I needed a clean race to prove that I can do good things on Sunday too, not just qualifying, and I think it was a good race. I also hope to be able to score points at Suzuka. I continue to prove with my performances, not just by speaking, although that is my style, but by showing the results and proving to people. I'm happy to be able to show my performances and I see that people are watching me more than in the last three years, so that's a good sign.

A difficult apprenticeship alongside Pierre Gasly

But where does the lack of consideration from which Yuki seems to suffer come from? The Nippon's first three years were not always easy, but the 23-year-old worked to progress at his own pace, and above all in a linear fashion. His first year, approached with far too much enthusiasm (he said publicly at every opportunity that he was there to beat Gasly and that he was aiming for the podiums), mainly highlighted his immaturity and his escapades on the radio.

He had the intelligence, during his second campaign in 2022, to put himself into a learning dynamic with his French teammate whom he ended up adoring, not to say idolizing, even if the weak performance of its car did not allow him to stand out. Last year, after having cut the constrained and forced cord with the Norman, he was propelled to the front of the stage by being associated with a Nyck de Vries rookie in F1 but absolutely not in motorsport.

Observers promised him hell, and some already considered that the Dutchman and his very analytical approach would make short work of his very instinctive vision of the race. Nope. Nippon had a solid start to the year. So much so that Nyck De Vries and Oscar piastri cited him among the three most impressive drivers at the start of 2023.

A particular season, during which he had to deal with three different teammates. First De Vries, dismissed after 10 races, then Daniel Ricciardo in two stages (whom he also beat), from Hungary to Zandvoort then from Austin to Abu Dhabi, and finally Liam Lawson, the New Zealand rookie who had compensated for the absence of the Australian for five races.

Hello, Yuki! © Frédéric Le Floc'h / DPPI

Tsunoda's image undoubtedly suffered greatly from the Kiwi's thunderous debut. If nothing should be taken away from Lawson, surprising 9th in Singapore, the Nippon especially experienced a lot of problems during the New Zealander's interim. At Monza, he never started after a technical problem in the formation lap, while in Singapore, the scene of Liam's triumph, he was caught in a collision with Checo Pérez on lap 1, which slightly skews the balance of power between the two men over the period.

His image as a protected Honda driver doesn't always help him either, but the boy seems to prove for several months that he no longer needs the Japanese manufacturer to secure a place on the grid. His solidity, seen at the end of last season and confirmed at the start of the year, is likely to reassure the boy's level. What if it was him, the natural recourse to Sergio Pérez at Red Bull?

Legitimate ambitions for Red Bull in 2025?

Of course, it is not written anywhere that the seat of the Mexican must go to a Racing Bulls driver, especially with drivers like Alonso ou Sainz on the market, but the starting possibilities of Max Verstappen, Checo Pérez's inconsistent results and Horner's initial consideration of RB driver Ricciardo for 2025 suggest that at least one place could be up for grabs.

If Helmut Marko would undoubtedly have favored Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls from 2024 instead of a Yuki Tsunoda protected by his status as a Honda driver (who will not be associated with Aston Martin that from 2026), the Japanese proves in these first three races that it would have been unfair not to continue in F1 and that the weak point is undoubtedly on the other side of the garage.

First points of the season!
P7 yeah 🙌 #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/gRxlTfINMv

— Mattia Spini (@Mattia_Spini_) March 25, 2024

Internally, we are in any case delighted with the boy's progress. “Yuki does a very solid job, a senior member of Faenza management confirmed to us. In Australia, since FP1, he has been exemplary. The gaps are so small that when you are comfortable with the car, it allows you not to change the set-up too much during the weekend and therefore to use each turn to brake a meter further on, to return with 1 km/h more, and this creates turn after turn a significant time saving. This allows you to build your weekend without a hitch, from FP1 to FP3, and thus progress quickly. Yuki is precisely in the process of finding this linearity there.”

As things stand, the one who impressed during his only year of Formula 2 punctuated in 3rd place in the drivers ranking in 2020 still has little chance of landing at Red Bull. But who knows, it would probably only take one or two additional flashes during the season to position itself even more seriously as a legitimate candidate. Given the furious madness of the upcoming market, and the great vagueness surrounding the futures of Verstappen and Pérez, it would be wrong not to believe it... Especially as Suzuka, his home race, looms!

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