{"id":19724,"date":"2024-03-29T08:32:48","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T12:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=19724"},"modified":"2024-03-29T08:39:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T12:39:08","slug":"red-bull-want-another-driver-comparison-before-tsunoda-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/29\/red-bull-want-another-driver-comparison-before-tsunoda-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull want &#8220;another driver comparison&#8221; before Tsunoda verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has spoken about whether Yuki Tsunoda is being considered for a promotion to the main team. The 23-year-old is outperforming teammate Daniel Ricciardo, but the Austrian team is still far from making a final decision for the future.<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull&#8217;s affinity for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/26\/ricciardo-asking-the-team-a-lot-of-questions-about-tsunoda-deficit\/\" target=\"_self\">Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> is well-established at this stage. The reigning Champions made a knee-jerk decision to bring the Australian back into Formula 1 at their first chance last season.<\/p>\n<p>Even before competing directly against Tsunoda, plenty of expectations and excitement followed the 8-time race winner. However, the last eight months have not followed the script that many in Formula 1 expected.<\/p>\n<p>Not only has Yuki Tsunoda been the faster VCARB driver, but by a significant margin. The Japanese driver has outqualified Ricciardo in every session so far in 2024. He also claimed RB&#8217;s only points (finishing P7) in Australia, pushing the team into 6th in the standings.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"1iGdIWUYS3Zd8NosaBuw-w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2108524562\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1iGdIWUYS3Zd8NosaBuw-w',sig:'2e8bisMD1keVIkItESD947tAOZ_ecJWxda0TrDJEVfo=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2108524562',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Tsunoda and Ricciardo under scrutiny<\/h3>\n<p>Whilst Helmut Marko has been very complimentary towards the youngster, he is tentative about making any conclusions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;We&#8217;re all puzzling about that. He&#8217;s [Ricciardo] generally slower than Yuki,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.laola1.at\/de\/red\/motorsport\/formel-1\/carlos-sainz-im-red-bull--das-sagt-helmut-marko\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">laola1.at.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Something never goes right with him. Which is surprising, because the winter test went very well for him.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But at the moment, Yuki is clearly the faster one.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When asked about Tsunoda&#8217;s chances at Red Bull, he continued:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;You would have to have another driver as a comparison.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The question is: Has Yuki become a high-flyer, or is Daniel so weak? There is still no objective answer after three races on three completely different circuits.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a id=\"DWPUw-_MRVNKDl573FCRVg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2108380436\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'DWPUw-_MRVNKDl573FCRVg',sig:'GucL41mIbI3aqEs_tlRXCDdRNAt_3IpTX3gdmMQObuA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2108380436',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Plenty of new and already-established inferences can be drawn from Marko&#8217;s comments. First, Red Bull&#8217;s hesitancy regarding Yuki Tsunoda is hardly a new development.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst the 23-year-old has steadily progressed, the Austrian team are still not confident he is ready for a main-team promotion. Despite his strong start to 2024, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko want a larger sample size.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, it seems that Tsunoda is being used as a benchmark to judge other drivers. First, it was against De Vries, and now it is against Ricciardo.<\/p>\n<p>However, Marko&#8217;s analysis of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/21\/daniel-ricciardo-initial-2024-difficulties-not-a-concern\/\" target=\"_self\">Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> is equally noteworthy. The 80-year-old is unsure about the Australian&#8217;s current form &#8211; and whether it speaks more about his teammate&#8217;s progress or his own deficiencies.<\/p>\n<p>After just three rounds, Red Bull is still weighing its options. However, this doesn&#8217;t mean the inter-team battle at the Racing Bulls is of any less importance until the summer break.<\/p>\n<p>To the contrary, every weekend is essential for RB. With F1&#8217;s clearly solidified top-five group, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/03\/26\/komatsu-very-happy-with-australia-points-still-sees-room-to-refine\/\" target=\"_self\">points for the bottom half of the field<\/a> are like gold dust. With <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/09\/24\/lawson-receives-red-bull-guarantee-for-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Liam Lawson<\/a> still waiting for an opportunity, the pressure at the Racing Bulls won&#8217;t go away anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has spoken about whether Yuki Tsunoda is being considered for a promotion to the main team. The 23-year-old is outperforming teammate Daniel Ricciardo, but the Austrian team is still far from making a final decision for the future. Red Bull&#8217;s affinity for Daniel Ricciardo is well-established at this stage. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":19727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,77,68,23,610,78,1581],"class_list":["post-19724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-helmut-marko","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}