Tsunoda at Red Bull should still be our target

Racing Bulls racing director Alan Permane says getting Yuki Tsunoda to Red Bull should remain a target of the squad’s satellite team after his snub for 2025.

Red Bull decided to turn to Tsunoda’s less experienced 2024 team-mate Liam Lawson to replace Sergio Perez at its main team for the upcoming season, ensuring Tsunoda stays at the junior team for a fifth consecutive season, much to the Japanese driver’s frustration.

Red Bull has reasoned that it feels Lawson is better equipped to deal with the pressure of being in a frontline seat alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen, arguably the toughest team-mate in the series, and that the New Zealander also provides better technical feedback.

Racing Bulls’ racing director Alan Permane, who joined the squad last year from Alpine, admits he too was initially “guilty” of having his preconceptions of what Tsunoda’s strengths and weaknesses were, but says the 24-year-old has positively surprised him.

“I must admit, I was guilty of that coming in. I don’t know if he’s taken a step up this year because I don’t have anything to compare against,” Permane told Autosport. “Of course, there are inconsistencies he needs to sharpen up, plenty of areas he needs to polish. But he’s what, 24? He’s a young kid, still, so he’s got plenty of time to do that. And he knows what he needs to work on.

“You can hear and see him getting frustrated with himself when he makes those errors but the speed is there, of that there’s no doubt. He’s very quick and his feedback is excellent, his English is excellent. I don’t know if that has been a limitation in the past but I don’t see any limitation there at all and he’s a joy to work with, he really is.”

Permane pointed out that both Tsunoda and his Anglo-Italian team should still be targeting a promotion to Red Bull in the future.  

“Hopefully, if I can bring him on 1% to help him out I’d be super happy,” Permane said. “Nothing would make me happier than to get him to a level where he can move to the top team, into Red Bull. Quite rightly that should be his target and it should be our target. One of the reasons for this team – and it’s not the only reason anymore – is to develop talent. If we can turn him into a race winner, fantastic.”

According to Permane, the likes of Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are good examples of levelheadedness behind the wheel, and the team pointed out Verstappen’s stunning comeback win in a tough Brazilian Grand Prix as the benchmark of how to deal with challenging circumstances during a grand prix.

“When he gets frustrated he then gets frustrated at himself for getting frustrated,” Permane added. “He knows it and he’s working hard on that.

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“I said: ‘Listen to Oscar on the radio.’ He’s in his second year and he never gets flustered or anything like that. And he’s clearly very quick. You rarely hear Lando [Norris] getting frustrated, and that’s the level you need to get to. 

“One of the things we did was playback the Brazil race, a massively intense situation, and Max and his engineer are just like they’re having a cup of coffee in the afternoon together. That’s the benchmark and all that information is out there for these guys to work on, and that’s one of the areas we’re working on with him. 

“There are hundreds of things they need to do and that’s just one small area. But he’s right in spotting that when things aren’t going well he just needs to come in and download.”