Red Bull made waves in the media and the world of F1 after announcing that Daniel Ricciardo will replace Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri. And that change will take place immediately, starting with the Hungarian GP. It is a controversial decision to replace a rookie before halfway into the season. But for Ricciardo, it is a chance for a proper comeback. Still for avoiding the Australian racer from getting too excited, Red Bull‘s top man has hyped his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda’s performance publicly.

Ever since Tsunoda signed with AlphaTauri, he has proved his worth on multiple occasions. In his debut race as a rookie, he finished P9 and got 2 points for the team. And despite the car not being quick enough, his performances have been consistent. After Pierre Gasly left the team, he took over the role of the senior driver. And has been driving like one. Unfortunately, de Vries couldn’t match that and has scored no points so far.

Speaking about the same, Helmut Marko has warned the Honey Badger of the Tsunoda’s skill and control over the Ato4. According to De Telegraaf, Marko said, “From Ricciardo, we first have to see how he compares to Tsunoda,” said Marko. “I think Yuki is underestimated by a lot of people. The AlphaTauri is not the easiest car to drive, but Yuki has proven that it is possible to get good results.”

So, Ricciardo does have something to think about and considerable work to put in. Marko might be all praise for the Japanese driver but Tsunoda is not quite happy with AlphaTauri’s progress this season.

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Yuki Tsunoda Gives Grim Update On AlphaTauri’s Insignificant Progress

In 2021, AlphaTauri finished 6th in the Constructors’ Championships with 142 points. In 2022, they slid down to 9th place, getting only 35 points. And in 2023, they are the slowest car on the grid, with only 2 points in 10 races. The team was expecting some changes at the British GP but to no avail. Even after applying the upgrades, the Friday practice session saw no difference, said Tsunoda.

After FP2 on Friday, Tsunoda said, as quoted by F1i, “So far, it’s not looking good. The result is no good so far. We can’t see the results that we are improving massively. We feel definitely a couple of gains in some places but some places we didn’t improve that we expected.”

The Hungarian GP is going to be a delight for Ricciardo fans. We’ll also get to see if he can bring the AT04 alive and if he manages to outqualify his teammate, Tsunoda.

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