{"id":32272,"date":"2025-04-02T05:46:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T09:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=32272"},"modified":"2025-04-02T10:29:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T14:29:50","slug":"helmut-marko-claims-newey-objected-to-promoting-tsunoda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/02\/helmut-marko-claims-newey-objected-to-promoting-tsunoda\/","title":{"rendered":"Helmut Marko claims Newey objected to promoting Tsunoda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since making the decision to replace Liam Lawson with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/31\/yuki-tsunoda-gives-positive-feedback-after-rb21-simulator-session\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, Red Bull have scrambled to try and control the narrative. For obvious reasons, the Austrian team&#8217;s driver management is being called into question.<\/p>\n<p>The situation at Red Bull is so polarised that, for large sections of F1 fans., Tsunoda joining the main team is seen as potentially detrimental to his career.<\/p>\n<p>In this climate, Helmut Marko has delivered a series of statements to rationalise the team&#8217;s latest changes.<\/p>\n<p>Amongst the 81-year-old&#8217;s comments, his latest quotes on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/13\/aston-martin-newey-focusing-entirely-on-2026-car\/\" target=\"_self\">Adrian Newey<\/a> are perhaps the most unusual from this saga.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Bull fail to justify management of Tsunoda and Lawson<\/h2>\n<p>When Lawson returned to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/04\/02\/why-both-vcarb-drivers-are-under-growing-pressure\/\" target=\"_self\">VCARB<\/a> last year, the narrative was that he would compete with Tsunoda to replace Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n<p>However, it became clear very soon that Lawson was Red Bull&#8217;s preferred option &#8211; even before completing a session in 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/23\/christian-horner-fails-to-rule-out-tsunoda-and-lawson-swap\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner&#8217;s statements<\/a> after the Singapore GP consistently mentioned the Kiwi driver, rather than Tsunoda, as the driver of interest at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, it would have taken a significant discrepancy between the VCARB drivers to warrant a change in plans.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the decision to promote Lawson was not necessarily a surprise &#8211; and was made irrespective of the strong performances Tsunoda had been stringing together since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Red Bull&#8217;s adamance that a driver with just 11 races was their best option to partner Verstappen hasn&#8217;t aged well.<\/p>\n<p>Their hasty push to promote Lawson has only increased the backlash to their driver swap after China.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last week, Helmut Marko has worked hard to rationalise the latest sequence of events at Milton Keynes.<\/p>\n<p>He has suggested that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/21\/tsunoda-has-made-quantum-leap-in-performance-says-marko\/\" target=\"_self\">Tsunoda has made a &#8220;quantum leap&#8221;<\/a> in performance this year.<\/p>\n<p>The 81-year-old insists that 2025 has revealed new evidence of his potential and consistency as a driver.<\/p>\n<p>Considering the Japanese driver&#8217;s very solid campaigns in 2023 and 2024, these comments seem like rather desperate attempts at revisionist history.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"xgu6Imt3SKZBFGxZTY5RtA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2208077575\" 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:'xgu6Imt3SKZBFGxZTY5RtA',sig:'BeUzz51EPGguxDHptxyyglPDbQh9Ho8j30dfBtBO0_Q=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2208077575',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Helmut Marko claims Newey played role Tsunoda decision<\/h4>\n<p>However, some of Marko&#8217;s most recent comments regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/22\/it-will-be-difficult-to-keep-verstappen-without-a-winning-car-marko\/\" target=\"_self\">Red Bull&#8217;s driver situation<\/a>\u00a0are even more unusual<\/p>\n<p>When asked why Tsunoda was not promoted sooner, he argued that he failed to show enough consistency last season.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially though, he also added a new detail concerning Adrian Newey:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;For a long time, Yuki had the image of not performing consistently and making silly mistakes here and there,&#8221;<\/em> he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kleinezeitung.at\/sport\/motorsport\/formel1\/19536095\/helmut-marko-fuer-adrian-newey-war-yuki-tsunoda-ein-rotes-tuch\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kleine Zeitung<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;That&#8217;s what happened last year in Mexico, where the decisive phase for us began.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;With Lawson, it was the exact opposite at first. He came on and delivered straight away, no matter how great the pressure was.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In retrospect, however, it wasn&#8217;t the right decision.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In general, however, a lot can be traced back to a single incident.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There Tsunoda drove into Gasly&#8217;s car. And the parts of the cars damaged the underbody of Verstappen&#8217;s car, which cost him the race.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Adrian Newey was furious at the time. From that point on, Yuki was a red rag to him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But now Newey is gone, and Yuki has worked hard on himself.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"93wOi2sfQRJRYCpKyDrwgw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2208076846\" 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:'93wOi2sfQRJRYCpKyDrwgw',sig:'UrnkTguhpTkXIuq0dJCtC4NBAoCoILMNyXjjVr4CmS8=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2208076846',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>A messy situation at Red Bull<\/h4>\n<p>Frankly, it is difficult to understand the timeline that Helmut Marko is trying to put together.<\/p>\n<p>His suggestion that Mexico is where Lawson became Red Bull&#8217;s first choice, for example, is a strange admission.<\/p>\n<p>Although Tsunoda spun out in qualifying, it was Lawson who had an incident with Sergio Perez &#8211; before showing the Mexican driver the middle finger on the start\/finish straight.<\/p>\n<p>Surely this isn&#8217;t the race where the 23-year-old proved himself a reference in terms of consistency?<\/p>\n<p>His comments about <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/03\/how-aston-martin-have-prepared-for-adrian-newey\/\" target=\"_self\">Adrian Newey<\/a> are also tricky to decipher &#8211; given that Newey was no longer active in Red Bull&#8217;s F1 operations by the end of season.<\/p>\n<p>Newey was already committed to Aston Martin at this stage, and wasn&#8217;t present trackside with Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, more eye-catching comments from Marko &#8211; as ever &#8211; can be expected in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since making the decision to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull have scrambled to try and control the narrative. For obvious reasons, the Austrian team&#8217;s driver management is being called into question. The situation at Red Bull is so polarised that, for large sections of F1 fans., Tsunoda joining the main team is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":32273,"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":[2452,78,2246],"class_list":["post-32272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-vcarb"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272","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=32272"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32294,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32272\/revisions\/32294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}