Yuki Tsunoda is “ready for Red Bull seat,” reckons Mekies

By Balazs Szabo on 10 Dec 2024, 02:00

Ahead of his first test with a current Red Bull F1 car, VCARB team boss Laurent Mekies reckons that Yuki Tsunoda is ready to get a chance to drive a more competitive car given his recent results.

Red Bull confirmed earlier that VCARB driver Yuki Tsunoda will drive for the team in anger for the first time in today’s Formula 1 post-season test in Abu Dhabi.

Despite being a part of the Red Bull Junior Programme and having driven older Red Bull F1 cars during demonstration runs, Tsunoda has yet to compete in a proper test of any kind for the Red Bull.

Asked whether Tsunoda is impressing him this season, VCARB team boss Laurent Mekies reckoned that the Japanese drivers has achieved an outstanding season.

“Yuki qualified P7 [at Las Vegas] on the dry. He qualified P3 the week before in Brazil on the wet. So, of course, if you look at the driver’s performance, it very much followed the team’s performance through the year. You know, we had a slow start and a fantastic string of races and a more difficult time when we hit the some issues with our development.

“And then finally, we managed to put the car back in the right window for this final part of the season. And the drivers’ results have been following that. But when I see Yuki again performing at that level like he did in the last few races, It was all together an outstanding season from his side. I think he has made a step this season that nobody could forecast and it’s something he should be proud of.

With Tsunoda set tet to test Red Bull’s current F1 car, the RB20 at today’s test running in Abu Dhabi, Mekies stated that the Japanese driver has done enough to get the chance to show his skills, with the Frenchmen going as far as to claim that his driver is ready to make the step up.

“Well, I think a guy at that level that has been scoring the amount of points he’s scored this year, a guy that has put the car in P7 or in P3 in the last two races in qualifying, of course I think he’s ready to get a faster car.

“We are hoping to provide him with this faster car, but of course, I think he’s ready for a faster car and a faster team or a bigger team. So the short answer is yes. And as for the test you will do with them, you know, I think it’s been very important for our drivers to get a chance into the bigger team, into our brother team.

“It’s one of our key DNA aspects for this team to be able to grow our drivers and to make them attractive enough so that Red Bull Racing want to have them. So we are very happy that you have this test and I’m confident it will perform well,” concluded Mekies.