Not Ricciardo, but Tsunoda to Red Bull? 'Hopefully they will consider me'

Yuki Tsunoda impressed with his eighth-place finish in qualifying in Australia. Where teammate Daniel Ricciardo only finished eighteenth, the Japanese managed to get more out of the car. In qualifying, Tsunoda is consistently better than Ricciardo and so he hopes Red Bull Racing will consider giving him a seat.

"It was good. I think throughout the week, we had a very good, consistent car and were able to be in the top ten all the time," Tsunoda told us happily. "So, definitely big credit to the team that they did a fantastic preparation and were able to build up the confidence pretty smoothly. Very happy with my performance as well."

Tsunoda says he is relieved after two frustrating weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia: "I think in the last two races, I was able to squeeze the performance from the car. Pretty consistent around the P10, and I have to keep doing what I'm doing. Have to put it together in a race. We’ve had frustrating races in the last three races. So, now we just have to focus on ourselves for the race. No mistakes."

Last year, Ricciardo suddenly became the Japanese driver's teammate after Nyck de Vries had to leave the team then called AlphaTauri. Ricciardo was then widely linked to the Red Bull seat next to Max Verstappen. Sergio Perez 's contract expires after this season, potentially freeing up a spot for the Australian. However, Tsunoda is doing better at VCARB so far.

Tsunoda hopes for Red Bull Racing seat

The Visa Cash App RB driver therefore hopes Helmut Marko will think about putting him in the Red Bull from next season "Hopefully they will consider it. At the same time, I do as much as I can to show the performance even to the other teams. I just want to increase my value as a driver that I can fight pretty strongly. I don't know what's going on with the Red Bull. But hopefully they will strongly consider it."