Marko: Tsunoda 'must improve' to qualify for Red Bull seat

Yuki Tsunoda’s solid run into the points in the Australian GP wasn’t lost on Helmut Marko, but the Red Bull motorsport advisor says the RB driver will need to do more to be considered for a race seat at Red Bull Racing for 2025.

Tsunoda qualified P8 in Melbourne, ten positions ahead of RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo, and spent his afternoon among the top ten, crossing the checkered flag 8th but gaining a spot thanks to Fernando Alonso’s 20-second time penalty.

It was a timely result for the 23-year-old as it came just days after Marko criticized the race pace of both Tsunoda and Ricciardo.

Both RB chargers are eying a seat with Red Bull Racing next season, but Marko, assessing Tsunoda’s form, says he’ll need to raise his game another notch to be taken into consideration for a plum seat at Red Bull.

“Every lap he was competitive and didn’t do anything wrong, he was calm,” commented Marko. “But as we say, one swallow does not make a summer.

“So, he has to improve more before he can be considered in this direction.”

• Read also: Tsunoda ‘impressed’ by RB car’s year-over-year gains

Tsunoda reckoned that RB’s more consistent package compared to its AT04 predecessor is helping him perform better.

“Every race week I’m just resetting myself, at each track we perform a little bit differently,” Tsunoda said

“But actually, the good thing is our car is pretty consistent in terms of performance, that we didn’t have last year. We were kind of up and down last year, so that’s one of the strengths.

“It was frustrating the last two races. A couple of situations happened and there was an opportunity that we could score points, and we lost it.

“We knew that we needed a clean race and I think we achieved it. We didn’t have any mistakes. That’s very important for me and for a team to have a good confidence for upcoming races.”

So far, Tsunoda has outpaced Ricciardo in qualifying in the first three races of the season, and outperformed the Aussie on race day in Saudi Arabia and in Melbourne.

Speculation is growing that RB is already mulling replacing Ricciardo with Red Bull’s super-sub Liam Lawson as early as the Miami Grand Prix in early May.

While pressure is likely building for Ricciardo given his disappointing results, Marko gave no indication after Sunday’s race that the eight-time Grand Prix winner’s days at RB are numbered.

Although the Austrian acknowledged Ricciardo’s disappointing results, he suggested that RB’s first order of business is to improve its car.

“He’s struggling, we’ll have to see,” Marko said. “There were some good signs in the Bahrain test, but the last few races haven’t been going too well.

“I think Ricciardo needs a safe and confident car. I hope the team can give him that so he can at least be on par with Yuki.”

Looking ahead to next week’s round of racing in Suzuka, Ricciardo will relinquish his RB seat in FP1 for Japanese rookie Ayumu Iwasa.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter