F1 News: Helmut Marko Hits Back At Yuki Tsunoda's Red Bull 'Politics' Remark - 'Stupid Mistakes'

Saajan Jogia | 11 Hours Ago

Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Visa Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda (22) at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has responded to Yuki Tsunoda’s claims of being overlooked for a Red Bull promotion despite outperforming his teammates in the junior team VCARB. With speculation surrounding a potential replacement for Sergio Perez, Tsunoda had suggested that "politics" were behind his lack of promotion. However, Marko countered by pointing to the 24-year-old’s "stupid mistakes" and the absence of "continuity" and "stability" in his performances as the main reasons for his failure to secure a Red Bull seat.

Tsunoda raced alongside Daniel Ricciardo until the Singapore Grand Prix and outperformed him on most race weekends. Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson replaced the Australian driver and is now being assessed alongside Tsunoda for a potential Red Bull promotion.

Despite the P7 finish in Brazil, and the P9 finish in last weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Japanese driver feels he has left no stone unturned to prove himself worthy of a Red Bull promotion alongside Max Verstappen, should the Milton Keynes outfit choose to replace Perez due to his lackluster performances this season. When asked by the media ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix if he sees himself as Perez's replacement, Tsunoda said:

“I don’t know. Please could you interview them and find out?

“To be honest, I don’t know. Even whatever they say in the interview, even they say, ‘Yuki is in the mix’, I don’t know if that’s the truth or not to be honest.

“So, yeah, I hope I’m in that mix, and if not, I don’t know what I should do more than this, to be honest.

“I’ll just keep pushing and things I can control. And those things, the Red Bull seat, they decide everything. I’m sure if I’m in the seat, I can fight for a higher Constructors’ Championship [position] and what they want.

“But, other things, politics things. They decide what they want.

“Historically looking back, it’s pretty natural that the driver, for example, in our team, if one driver outperforms the other driver like this consistently the last few years, you get promoted. It’s kind of a natural thing.

“Maybe something changed. The dynamics maybe changed, Red Bull itself changed after Mr. Mateschitz passed away.

“I mean, one of the drivers has got a Drivers’ Championship, and this is a team that has had success since quite a long time, so what they’re doing is I guess not a bad thing, but it doesn’t really make sense for me that I didn’t really be in the mix much so far.

“I don’t know much. For myself at least, I can’t find much reasons why they’re not really, so far, talking about me heavily.”

In response to Tsunoda's remarks, Marko affirmed that the VCARB driver has the speed but lacks consistency. He told Kleine Zeitung:

“He has now delivered two very good races in Brazil and Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he made two stupid mistakes in Brazil before that."

“Yuki has the speed, but he lacks continuity and stability.

“But when it works for him, it works very well.”

Speaking about the future driver lineup of both teams, the 81-year-old advisor said:

“There will be a meeting on Monday after Abu Dhabi and that’s when the decisions will be made."