I like Yuki a lot. Pierre Gasly described his former team mate as "a fantastic, enthusiastic and honest human beiing who speaks his mind without a filter". And I think Pierre described Yuki very well there.
There are some questions marks over Yuki; as some have said he was clearly beaten by Gasly (which is no shame). And this year Yuki has dominated de Vries, even trashed him. But there is the uncertainty of how reliable de Vries is as a measuring stick because Nyck may be older and more experienced in life as Yuki, fact remains that Nyck still is a rookie with 2 years less F1 race experience under his belt.
It would have been more interesting had we seen another confrontation between Gasly & Tsunoda this year to see if Tsunoda can beat him now.
Helmut Marko once said in an interview that it takes a new F1 driver three years, three full F1 seasons, before they show their true potential and start to perform at their best level. So first year to learn , second year to improve on what was learned in year 1 and the third year to start to peak and to maximise potential.
Now if you look at drivers like Pierre Gasly or Alex Albon, they did show the trend (performing strong in +- their third year) that Marko was describing and.... Yuki Tsunoda also fits that theory: performing strongly in his third season.
So was Marko right or is it just a coiincidence?
He may be but I really don't know because research / more data is needed to show that such a theory is valid. I guess it can be called vallid for drivers racing for AlphaTauri.
Tsunoda did have a strong race, top 10 on his debut race. Then started struggling, improved last year but in my opnion not enough to keep him maybe: on the cusp, but his team thought he improved enough to keep him and I have to admit he has done better as I had anticipated this year. He has even been one of the top performers this year considering he is driving for a smaller team, a B team in essence.
But the question of this poll is:
- Should Red Bull promote him to their A team to partner Max for 2024? (Effectively replacing Perez, who is still contracted for 2024 as far as I know)/
My answer is:
* Certainly not for 2024, he is not ready imho and Perez is underrated. I see very few, if any, driver who would perform on Perez' level as 2nd driver (make no mistake: he is a clear number 2) at Red Bull. Red Bull also doesn't need and doesn't even want a driver beating & challenging Max.
They want a driver who is close to Max (without upsetting the number 1 & 2 role in the team) and capable of beating the other teams. And Perez is doing exactly what is required. He doesn't threaten Max' number 1 position in the team, he is pretty close to Max for a second driver role and is beating rival teams.
* Yuki is too emotional to go up against Max imho.
Ideally, if you're going to replace Perez (who I expect to still stay in that seat for a couple of years to be honest) Red Bull should choose a driver for that position (2nd driver supporting Max) who firs of all focusses on himself and his own performance. So that driver may not be obsessed to beat Max or compare himself with Max. If you can do that as a driver, you will extract better performances and more likely become a great 2nd driver (no shame in beiing a great 2nd driver next to a rare talent) as a driver who is trying to beat Max (all the time).
A more experienced driver usually is more likely to adapt this mentality, a more experienced F1 driver usually will be more realistic about what is possible or his limitations.
Gerhard Berger said he adapted this strategy when Ayrton Senna became his team mate. Senna's speed initially shocked Berger so much when they became team mates at McLaren (fun fact: Berger did beat Senna to pole on his McLaren debut at Phoenix 1990) that Berger decided to not compare himself with Senna anymore and just focuss on himself. At the same time Berger decided to see his rival Senna bot as his rival but as omeone to work together with. They actually became good friends, and that was a relief for Ron Dennis / McLaren after the bitter internal rivalry of Prost-Senna.
So Red Bull needs a 2nd driver with Gerhard Berger's 1990's mentality. I really can't see Yuki fit that profile. And right now I don't see anyone else with that Berger (he was the ideal 2nd driver next to Senna) profile either. Except Nico Hülkenberg but he isn't the youngest driver anymore but he would fit very well.
* Is Tsunoda a possible Max team mate after 2024, so from '25-'26? I don't think so. But I have been wrong before and I had not expected Tsunoda to drive as well as he has done this year. But I fear Max would trash him and that a more experienced driver, with similar experience as Perez when he moved to Red Bull, is required when they eventually will repleace ''Checo" (not soon imho).
Personally I don't see a driver in F2 either who is going to be Max team mate or even beat Max. Sure Ayumu Iwasa is looking impressive. He seems very focussed, looks like he has more control over his emotions as Tsunoda (I do like a driver like Yuki showing his raw unfiltered emotions though but that does not improve performance: on the contrary). Iwasa has shown remarkable improvement every year and is very very quick considering that he isn't even that long in Europe yet.
But it takes a lot to perform in what is for sure the most difficult and most stressfull seat (by far) in F1: the one next to Max.
Idem for Liam Lawson, he impressed me a lot with his maturity and in particular during his DTM season when he was beating seasoned GT drivers as a rookie. He's also doing well in Japan right now, he should get de Vries seat (maybe already after the summer, I think so) but I don't see him as a future Max partner at Red Bull's A team either. I think he lacks that tiny little bit for that.
So who will partner Max after Perez in my opinion. Well as I said before , I think Perez will still stay after 2024 one or two more seasons. And then I am convinced that Red Bull will go and get Alex Albon back. With several years of extra experience since he last partnered Max he will be the perfect choice and ready for the job when Red Bull calls him back. Better prepared as AlphaTauri's current drivers or as Red Bull's F2 juniors or Lawson imho.
In the long run Red Bull's future is for sure Arvid Lindblad (born in London, Swedish parents, drives under British flag). Lindblad imho easily the most talented of all Red Bull juniors.
Lindblad may even become a Max beater at one point. He's probably the talent that comes closest to the talent of Mercedes Jr. Andrea Kimi Antonelli together with Gabriele Mini & Rafa Camara and I would also add Nikola Tsolov (jumped too early to F3 imho tjis year though), Taylor Barnard, Ugo Igochukwu and Tuuka Taponen to that shortlist from single seater feeder series.
Lindblad is Red Bull's future but we still have to wait several years before he enters F1 via AlphaTauri, he's still just 16 and in his first full season of F4.
Edited by William Hunt, 06 June 2023 - 18:21.
