Red Bull’s recruitment drama is the talk of the F1 town right now. The Austrian outfit renewed its deal with Sergio Perez early this season while its contract with Max Verstappen will not run out until 2028. However, the current pair of Checo and Max might not last long because of the Mexican’s decline in performance. After the first 12 Grands Prix in 2024, Perez is at the 6th spot with a gap of 137 points to his teammate despite both of them driving the same Red Bull RB20. This has led to growing discontent among the Milton-Keynes outfit’s stakeholders regarding Checo.

Recent rumors claim that if Sergio Perez does not get some groundbreaking results in the two races before the upcoming F1 summer break, he will lose his RBR seat. This raises the question: who will take over Checo’s place at Red Bull as the reigning World Champion Max Verstappen’s teammate? Well, VCARB racer Yuki Tsunoda seems to be up for the job. As a Red Bull junior who is currently contracted to drive for RBR’s sister team, Tsunoda believes he is ready to take on Perez’s role. The Japanese even talked about the other potential replacements who might beat him to the challenge.

Among the available options for Red Bull, the team’s reserve driver Liam Lawson seems to be a frontrunner for Perez’s seat. The New Zealander has waited on the sidelines for the role of a regular driver in F1 for too long. Last year, he had stepped in as Daniel Ricciardo‘s substitute at numerous races towards the end of the season. At the Singapore GP, he scored his career’s first F1 Championship points by impressing everyone with a P8 finish. However, Yuki Tsunoda feels that Red Bull would be performing a “weird” stunt if it recruited Lawson as Sergio Perez’s replacement.

Speaking on the former F2 podium holder being Red Bull’s pick for the 2025 campaign, Yuki Tsunoda said to GPBlog, ”If they choose Liam, that would be weird. But for me, at least, I don’t think so. Liam did a really good job when he drove the previous year. I think I did more than that. We’ll see how it goes. They know how to manage the drivers.”

Thus, Yuki is interested in advertising himself as a perfect choice for RBR if the team wants to swap out Perez. But this is not even half the story. Fueled by a need to prove himself in the F1 world, Yuki Tsunoda has even claimed his confidence in fighting off all the top racers if he gets a seat at Red Bull.

Yuki Tsunoda claims he can even fight Max Verstappen if Red Bull lets him

When Tsunoda took the seat at AlphaTauri in 2021, he was the first 2000-born racer on the F1 grid. In his tenure at the sister team of Red Bull, he has gathered a total of 81 Championship points with no podium victory till now. But he has more experience driving in Formula 1 than Liam Lawson, and hence he wants Red Bull to promote him to Sergio Perez’s seat now. Speaking on being ready to compete with heavyweights like Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Yuki said, “I’ve been feeling ready for the last three years to fight against the top teams, higher positions, even with Max [Verstappen] or whatever.”

However, Yuki Tsunoda is aware that the decision for his move to Red Bull does not reside with him. Respecting whatever step RBR takes regarding its hiring situation, the Japanese talent said, “In the end, they’re the ones who are going to decide and it’s not the things I can control. So I’m just focusing on what I have to do at the next two races.” Thus, it is clear that Yuki is viewing the upcoming two races in Hungary and Belgium as his chance to wow the stakeholders of Red Bull so that they promote him to take Perez’s place.

Now that Tsunoda seems sure that Checo will move out of Red Bull soon, he is trying to capture the seat beside Max Verstappen. But Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo are two other options available to the Austrian outfit at this moment. Since Yuki claims he has more experience in comparison with Lawson, Daniel Ricciardo’s 8 Grand Prix wins deserve special mention. The 35-year-old is clearly the most experienced out of all three potential replacements for Checo.

Will Red Bull pick the Australian based on experience alone or will they go for fresh blood and take up rookie Lawson? Share your predictions in the comments below.