Yuki Tsunoda’s Future Looks Promising, But Where Does He Go From Here?

What is the one thing that Yuki Tsunoda has at the moment that maybe most of his contemporaries do not have with the possible exception of Liam Lawson, who as of the recent past returned to the grid?

In lighter vein, it is perhaps a bit of uncertainty about his own racing future. Not that his current F1 racing outfit is in anyway unsure of the Japanese driver.

Truth certainly is that despite having great potential and the desire to succeed at the highest possible level, Yuki Tsunoda, critics and fans believe, is struggling to find that team that could bring out the best in him.

On current record, he is the one driver that his incumbent Visa Cash App team can’t thank enough and quite frankly, it is not that hard to understand why.

Yuki Tsunoda has scored 30 of the team’s 46 overall points this season and is driving akin to a confident guy with his best days in the future. Actually, this is what the Sagamihara-born driver would certainly hope for: that his best days lie in the future. Though, for that to happen, he might have to switch gears (and in F1-speak that could mean change racing gears) completely and switch to a team that can speed up that process of finding him an able car that can enable him to score more.

Yuki Tsunoda outperformed his teammate Daniel Ricciardo quite comprehensively

For a driver who is not even near the experience of someone like Daniel Ricciardo, who ended his career with 257 race starts in comparison to the Japanese driver’s 85 starts, Yuki outperformed the experienced Australian for much of this season. To give more context, while Ricciardo found his days numbered at the Visa Cash App team having struggled continuously to score points, it was noted that Yuki Tsunoda was driving the wheels off of that RBPTH 002.

And now with just two races remaining with the Qatar Grand Prix being the penultimate race of 2024, Yuki Tsunoda’s backers and there are many, have begun to wonder as to what lies ahead for the talented Japanese driver?

Can he, for instance, find a place with the Red Bull senior team, the famed Milton Keynes-based outfit where current world champion Max Verstappen’s current teammate Sergio Perez is struggling?

Can that second seat be Yuki Tsunoda’s and while there’s little doubt he has the potential, what does his immediate boss at the Visa Cash App team think of the youngster?

Here’s what Laurent Mikes had to say about the 24-year-old

“I think he has made a step this season that nobody could forecast, and it’s something he should be proud of. Of course, I think he’s ready to get a faster car. We are hoping to provide him with this faster car, but of course, I think he’s ready for a faster car and a faster team or a bigger team.”

Furthermore, the following is what Laurent Mekies, the French engineer and current team principal of the Visa Cash App RB Formula one team happened to say in the context of Yuki Tsunoda:

It’s one of our key DNA aspects for this team to be able to grow our drivers and to make them attractive enough so that Red Bull Racing want to have them. So we are very happy that you have this test, and I’m confident he will perform well.”