Did Tsunoda ‘destroy’ his team mates

Yuki Tsunoda has missed his best chance to join Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, after they announced his team mate Liam Lawson will race for them in 2025.

Red Bull handed Lawson his chance to drive for their top team after just 11 starts with their junior squad. They picked him over Tsunoda, who has driven for RB (previously known as AlphaTauri) since 2021.

Tsunoda undoubtedly feels hard done by that Red Bull have overlooked him. Before the end of the season, as it became clear Red Bull would replace Sergio Perez in 2025, Tsunoda made the pointed claim that he had “destroyed” his team mates while at RB.

Does Tsunoda’s claim stack up – and does Red Bull’s decision to promote Lawson instead of him make sense?

Tsunoda vs Gasly

Tsunoda made his F1 debut in 2021 following a rapid promotion through the junior categories including a single year each in Formula 3 and Formula 2. His first team mate was Pierre Gasly who had already started 64 F1 races, all bar two for Red Bull’s second team, known at the time as AlphaTauri (now RB).

Points on his debut in Bahrain set expectations high, but Tsunoda largely failed to live up to them in his first season. Team principal Franz Tost grew concerned following a series of collisions, but Tsunoda earned a second season at the team.

In his second season Tsunoda showed a lot more polish and potential. He ran Gasly closer in qualifying and took a larger share of the team’s points. The more experienced driver still comfortably out-scored him by almost two to one, but the improvement Tsunoda had made was obvious.

Tsunoda vs de Vries

If Red Bull had their way, Tsunoda’s 2023 team mate would have been Colton Herta, but he lacked the necessary FIA superlicence points and the FIA wouldn’t budge. They therefore appointed Nyck de Vries: A champion in Formula 2 and Formula E who was overlooked by Formula 1 teams until his impressive debut as a substitute for Alexander Albon at Monza in 2022.

However with Daniel Ricciardo returning to Red Bull as a reserve, the senior team quickly decided they wanted to get a measure of his abilities, and De Vries was shunted aside after just 10 races. He had not shown up brilliantly against Tsunoda during that time, but nor were his statistics disastrous for a rookie with so few starts.

Would Tsunoda have avoided the same fate 10 races into his F1 career if Red Bull had…