Pierre Gasly believes that Yuki Tsunoda “deserves a chance” alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
The Alpine F1 driver spent half a season alongside the Dutchman at the Milton Keynes team in 2019, before being demoted to the team then called Toro Rosso.
The Frenchman was then a teammate of Tsunoda for two seasons at AlphaTauri, before leaving the Red Bull family.
Despite the Japanese driver's strong performances since Gasly left what is now RB F1, Red Bull have continually overlooked him as a candidate to place alongside Verstappen. To the point that Tsunoda has been offended by it in the media for a few races.
"It's a difficult question," replied Gasly when asked if Tsunoda should be given a chance.
“I think performance-wise he deserves a chance. He seems to have improved a lot since he came to F1. He performed very well this season and last year. He beat his teammates.”
“From that point of view, looking at the Red Bull program, it would make sense to give it a chance.”
“But in the end we know that performance is not the only thing that comes into play in this decision with the top team. It depends on what Christian [Horner] not Helmut [Marko] want to do it.”
“So personally, I would like to see him in a Red Bull – and see what he would do there, but I know it's not that easy. But if you ask me, performance-wise, yes, I think he deserves a chance.”
Dr. Marko responds to Tsunoda
Yesterday, the Japanese asked journalists at a press conference to ask Red Bull directly why he was not considered for a seat in 2025 in the main team (read here).
And the response was quick from Dr. Helmut Marko, who believes that Tsunoda lacks “the necessary regularity” to be a serious contender to replace Sergio Perez next year.
“He has now had 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 the consistency needed for a top team and the stability. But when it works for him, it works very well.”
The question now is whether Marko prefers the very good consistency in terms of Perez's poor performances of late or the Japanese's brilliant performances…
