F1 News: Newey objected to Red Bull signing Tsunoda

(GMM) Yuki Tsunoda might already have been a Red Bull Racing driver if not for Adrian Newey. And given that, his chances of racing a Newey designed Aston Martin are near-zero.

With Liam Lawson’s tenure alongside Max Verstappen painfully short after an abysmal first two races of 2025, the team is heading into the Japanese GP with home-town hero Tsunoda at the wheel.

It’s already well known that quadruple world champion Verstappen disagreed with the decision to oust Lawson.

“He disagreed because he kept saying the car was just so difficult to drive,” team advisor Dr Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “That’s his opinion, and that’s a good thing.

“But you can’t become world champion as a one-man team.”

Marko now admits promoting Lawson ahead of Tsunoda was a mistake, but he traces it back to Mexico last year, where the “decisive phase” of who should replace Sergio Perez coincided with one particular incident.

“Tsunoda drove into Pierre Gasly’s car, and parts of the cars on the track damaged the underbody of Verstappen’s car, which cost him the race,” he revealed. “Adrian Newey was furious at the time.

“From that point on, Tsunoda was a red rag to him. But now Newey is gone, and Yuki has worked hard on himself. He has changed management and simply grown up. I heard him say he’s already expecting a podium finish in Japan, but I’d be happy if Max made it onto the podium.

“But hey, let’s wait and see,” added Marko.

Finally, Marko said Red Bull not only needs a more competitive second driver, but that the 2025 car needs to be made quicker overall.

“We need to quickly deliver updates that actually work,” he said. “They come in batches, of course, and if something doesn’t work, we have to fix it.

“But to win the fifth world championship, these improvements definitely have to happen in the next five races. Otherwise it will be too late.”