Christian Horner is not ruling out Yuki Tsunoda being promoted to the main Red Bull team in the future.
The Japanese driver is having a strong season for RB, where he has out-shined experienced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
However, whilst the Australian's name has consistently been linked to re-joining Red Bull - potentially in place of under-performing Sergio Perez - Tsunoda has not, despite his better performances.
As pressure mounts on the Mexican driver, RB reserve Liam Lawson has also been touted as an option. The New Zealander acquitted himself well during a five-race stint last season when he deputised for the injured Ricciardo.
However, unlike his colleagues, Tsunoda has seldom been linked to graduating to Max Verstappen's team-mate.
"You can never rule anything out," Horner replied when asked by RacingNews365 if the 24-year-old could step up to the main team in the future. "We have options for multiple years on him because we believe he's a talent."
Despite this, Tsunoda has never been afforded the opportunity of a test in a Red Bull, something that has been extended to Lawson, who will test for the team at Silverstone on Thursday.
"He's a Red Bull Racing driver. He's on a Red Bull Racing contract," Horner said after being questioned as to why the Japanese driver had not been given a similar chance in the past, before adding: "You never know. Maybe he'll get a test one day. You never know."
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Tsunoda benefitting from Ricciardo
It is a situation that has parallels to the test Ricciardo had at Silverstone after last year's British Grand Prix, albeit on behalf of Pirelli, something that ultimately led to Nyck de Vries being cut from AlphaTauri.
Whilst Tsunoda is not in danger of losing his RB seat, there does not appear to be the immediate pathwas forward that are available to his Australian team-mate or Lawson.
Despite this, Horner was keen to emphasise the Japanese driver's performance this season which he feels is in part due to working closely with Ricciardo.
Tsunoda brought his RB home in 10th place at Silverstone after qualifying P13. Meanwhile, Ricciardo moved forward from P15 on the grid to finish where his team-mate started.
"I think Yuki's doing a good job," said the 50-year-old. "He got another point, he's stringing weekends together, he's doing a good job.
"I think he's benefited from having Daniel [Ricciardo] alongside him. He'll openly admit that he's learned from Daniel, in terms of having an experienced driver and how they interact with the team and the engineers.
"Yuki's not a rookie anymore. He's got quite a lot of experience now under his belt, and you can see he's putting that to good use - and in difficult conditions like today, I thought he drove a very good race."
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Feersumenjin
Yeah well we all know Horner & Co has always been lukewarm on Tsunoda so no real surprise here. But, the question I come to is simply given that of late Red Bull is trying to assert that Venus Claptrapp whatever app or name de jour Alpha Tauri or whatever is , is still "apparently" the farm team for future Red Bull drivers, but was previously asserted that they were going to be a team that had to stand on their own, Are they in fact obligated or as of yet contracted to run the RBPT powerplant? If not and they actually do have some form of autonomy, then sticking with Honda makes a fair amount of sense for them strategically and by inference would imply Tsunoda is there for the long haul. Anyone out there have some definite info on this?
Gordo62
Lots of focus on drivers but not much on drivers handling preference. Red Bull would do better by moving Perez to RB because that car has an understeer bias. Ricciardo would do better at Red Bull because the RB20 has a dominant front end bias. Perez likes a car with a more dominant rear end whereas Ricciardo performs better with a car with a stronger front end like Verstappen.
budget-tech#70347
The writer forgot to mention that Tsunoda not only outperformed Ricardo on this weekends race but also Perez who is in a much better car both in qualifying and the race. If outperforming Perez doesn't qualify Tsunoda to be good enough to race for Red Bull then nothing will.
This comment has been edited on:
Imagine Dragons
I see no relevance in this comment
EminemFerraris
I'm not surprised at all...
Commander Eminem
Me neither, Carlos.
E_Fudd
Would you want to work with Tsunoda unless you had too? He is still very immature for his age and it shows in his driving. His talent is not enough to be such a pain to work with.
Commander Eminem
Is it worth it? It does not look like it
Sundance98
*As Solatzo was overheard saying: "De Beep, De Bop, De Boop!".....We will stay with Checo for two more races. If he doesn't make a comeback...we can start to talk the talk!