Red Bull’s rising stars, Tsunoda and Hadjar, are turning heads with confident drives and maturity beyond their years in early season showings.
Red Bull’s driver development program has every reason to smile after recent performances from two of its rising stars.
Yuki Tsunoda has made a strong impression since stepping into a Red Bull seat, replacing Liam Lawson after just two races. While many doubted he’d ever get the call-up, the Japanese driver has grabbed his chance, finishing 12th and 9th before an early collision with Pierre Gasly in the most recent Grand Prix.
Despite that setback, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is pleased with Tsunoda’s progress.
“His pace is solid, and he’s approaching things the right way. Sure, he still loses a couple of tenths to Max in qualifying, but that’s within the expected range. He’s learning fast and getting more comfortable with the car,” Marko said.
Reflecting on the crash in Saudi Arabia, Marko added: “Incidents like that happen. According to our data, he could have finished sixth – and that’s a big step forward considering our second car barely made the top ten before.”
But if Tsunoda is winning over skeptics, Isack Hadjar is doing even more.
The French rookie has caught Marko’s eye with a calm, consistent start to his season – so much so that Marko called him “the standout surprise of the early championship.”
“He didn’t know most of the tracks, but he was quick right out of the box and kept mistakes to a minimum, except for one slip-up in Australia,” Marko explained.
“What sets him apart is how he manages races. He hits good lap times while taking care of his tyres – something even experienced F1 drivers struggle with. And he does it all with an impressive level of composure.”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s race in Miami, Marko predicts McLaren could have the edge.
“Miami’s a completely different circuit, and it’s likely to be hotter. That’s not great for us,” he admitted. “In Jeddah, McLaren had a clear pace advantage in hotter practice conditions, though it evened out by qualifying.”
“This time, we expect the warmer temperatures to favor them again. Our job now is to widen the performance window of our car and fix some of its weak spots before the European races – that’s how we boost our baseline speed.”
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