Honda reveals Red Bull talks over Tsunoda promotion

Honda Racing Corporation boss Koji Watanabe has revealed with Red Bull over Yuki Tsunoda’s potential promotion. 

The Japanese finally got behind the wheel of a contemporary Red Bull F1 car in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test, performing well as he and Liam Lawson are evaluated to partner Max Verstappen, if, as expected, Sergio Perez is axed.

The Tsunoda-Red Bull test came at the insistence of Honda, with Red Bull understood to be leaning towards promoting Lawson ahead of Tsunoda, who has just completed his fourth season in grand prix racing. 

Tsunoda has been unclear about the reasons why Red Bull was not seemingly interested in promoting him, but Watanabe has revealed talks with Red Bull boss Christian Horner over the possibility of a Tsunoda-Verstappen line-up at the senior team in 2025, with Tsunoda already signed up to RB.

“I returned to Japan from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (December 10th) and on Saturday I had various discussions with Christian Horner about the drivers for next season and beyond,” Watanabe told a Honda press conference. 

“As I always say, the team has the right to decide on the driver, so our opinion is merely for reference, but from the HRC side, we believe that Tsunoda has the ability to be promoted to Red Bull and should be one of the candidates. 

“I think that what we can do is to provide an opportunity for him to show his abilities to the world, so I asked for him participate in this test, and we were able to make it happen.”

“I only met him before the test, and he said: ‘I want to achieve good results. I’m going to enjoy myself.’ 

“He said these two things, and since then, all I have is the report from the track from HRC, but he has very clearly analysed the differences between the RB car and the Red Bull car, and has given the team very useful advice and comments on that basis.

“I have confirmed from the report that he is very satisfied. After that, I don’t know what will happen, so we’ll have to wait and see the results, but if it goes well, that’ll be great.

“In any case, (even if he can’t drive for Red Bull), he’s already been booked to drive for RB next season, so I expect him to perform well next season no matter which team he drives for.”