Ricciardo favouritism revealed in Red Bull replacement rumours

Red Bull junior star Yuki Tsunoda has revealed the pressures around competing with Daniel Ricciardo for a promotion up to the main Red Bull team.

Tsunoda has been racing with VCARB for four full seasons, and is set for a fifth year with the sister team in 2025, having missed out on a promotion at the end of 2024.

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Red Bull instead decided to promote Liam Lawson to replace Sergio Perez, despite the New Zealander only having raced in 11 grands prix in his young career.

It came as Tsunoda had managed to outperform Lawson, Nyck de Vries and veteran Ricciardo in the last two seasons with the team, yet never seemed to be the favourite for Perez's position.

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Will Tsunoda ever get a promotion?

Heading into the 2024 season, Perez was under immense pressure to keep his seat alongside Max Verstappen, and Ricciardo and Tsunoda's partnership was said to be a fight for the spot with the main team.

While Ricciardo struggled under the pressure against his much younger team-mate, Tsunoda excelled and once again threw his hat into the ring for a promotion.

However, Perez's good start to the season saw him being offered a new contract at Red Bull, just one of a number of setbacks suffered by Tsunoda in the past couple of years.

Now, it looks as though his partnership with the Red Bull brand may be terminated at the end of 2025, and the Japanese driver has been speaking about his partnership with former team-mate Ricciardo.

The Australian fan favourite was back on the grid in a full-time capacity, and there was real hope among fans that the eight-time grand prix winner might be able to get himself back to the very top of the sport.

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"Throughout the season, rumours were everywhere," Tsunoda told MotorsportWeek.

"Even since Daniel drove from the first race, almost every race, people were saying, 'oh Daniel might join Red Bull because Perez is not really performing well'.

"They’re talking about every race. For me, I just want to hear a clear decision, but obviously, a bit of rumours a couple of races before the last race already started.

"Those rumours and how Christian and the Red Bull guys were behaving was not really towards my favour.

"So, I kind of also was prepared. I tried to prepare myself in my heart and mentally, so that even if I get news that I don’t want to hear, I’m able to kind of switch myself to the level that I have to be in."

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