Yuki Tsunoda provides Red Bull test update after Honda submit ‘strong’ RB20 ‘request’

Yuki Tsunoda is confident that a test with the Red Bull RB20 “will happen” after long-time backers Honda confirmed they are pushing for the Japanese driver to show what he can do in a top F1 2024 car.

Red Bull are likely to reshape their driver lineup for the F1 2025 season, with Sergio Perez’s seat coming under mounting scrutiny having gone without a podium since the Chinese Grand Prix in April.

Yuki Tsunoda confident of Red Bull RB20 test after Honda intervention

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Although Perez signed a new two-year contract as recently as June, Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko insisted this week that his new deal will be no obstacle to the team making a change for F1 2025.

Liam Lawson is widely considered to be the frontrunner to replace Perez as Max Verstappen’s team-mate for next season, with Marko hailing the New Zealander as a “man for the future” after he finished ninth in his first F1 race in more than a year at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Koji Watanabe, the head of Honda’s racing activities, revealed during the Austin weekend that Honda have “strongly requested” that Tsunoda is given a Red Bull test to show the team what he can do in a leading car, potentially at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi in December.

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PlanetF1.com understands that Tsunoda is scheduled to drive the RB20 as part of a plan with Honda that has been in place for around two months.

However, it it believed that the 24-year-old is highly unlikely to be considered for a full-time seat with Red Bull in the future.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, Tsunoda revealed that he is growing in confidence that his test behind the wheel of the RB20 will materialise.

Asked directly by PlanetF1.com if he has made any further progress on securing a test with Red Bull, he said: “I think that test will happen, maybe.

“It’s a Red Bull Racing thing that you just never know until that day [arrives], so it’s what I have to do now.”

Tsunoda revealed that he has been in direct communication with Red Bull’s hierarchy over an RB20 test, claiming his own improvement over the last 12 months and Honda’s insistence that he is granted a Red Bull outing have been crucial to securing the run.

He said: “It’s a very good opportunity.

“At least I finally can show a bit of my driving and they just can see how I’m driving. I think it’s very important.

“At least it feels great that finally they give me more opportunity. I don’t know if it will still happen or not, but I even heard them directly at least, so I’ll try to try to maximise the opportunity.

“Definitely Honda helped me to push [for] that testing. They are pushing.

“Obviously, I was pushing since my very first race as well, even last year.

“But it’s kind of a mix between [me] showing a result that I stepped up a little bit more compared to last year and Honda also did a little bit definitely, pushing Red Bull as well.

“I was asking multiple times [for a test in the past] and it never happened.”

Asked why it has taken until the end of his fourth full season to be considered for a Red Bull test, Tsunoda claimed he “got used to” being overlooked despite seeing off Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo since the start of the 2023 season.

And he conceded that his notoriously feisty conduct over team radio may have played a part in Red Bull’s reluctance to hand him a chance with a front-running car.

Asked if he is surprised that it took so long to be granted a Red Bull test, he replied: “If you asked that [in my] second year or third year, I’d be very surprised.

“I kind of got used to it. I got used to how difficult [it is] to get even a single day testing [despite] outperforming both of my team-mates the previous years.

“I think that’s probably something that was going on in the background that I didn’t know.

“For sure, at the same time, they probably thought that I’m not really able to improve as much as they wanted [or reached the necessary] level, especially with radio communications.”

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