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F1 pundit Joe Saward said that Red Bull was reportedly not keen on releasing Yuki Tsunoda to race for another F1 team. This rumor emerged amid his potential move to Audi (currently Sauber).
After confirming Nico Hulkenberg for 2025, several reports claimed that Audi's next target was hiring Carlos Sainz. However, the Spaniard has not yet made a concrete decision on where he would want to race in 2025. Hence, a recent report from MotorsportWeek claimed that Audi could potentially chase Yuki Tsunoda as their second driver. These rumors emerged as a result of Carlos Sainz potentially contacting Williams for a move as well.
Yuki Tsunoda has been consistently beating his RB teammate, Daniel Ricciardo in the 2024 F1 season. The Japanese driver scored 19 points in the first eight races, while Ricciardo only scored five. Since his current contract runs out in 2024, rumors claim that Audi could be one of the teams eyeing him as a potential candidate.
According to Joe Saward, however, Red Bull was reluctant to release Yuki Tsunoda from their camp and allow him to join another F1 team. He also stated how this would create a driver-seat imbalance at RB, with Tsunoda, Ricciardo, and reserve driver Liam Lawson fighting for two seats.
"I'm also hearing that Red Bull won't release Yuki for Audi, which is interesting because it now has three drivers for two RB seats... unless, of course, Audi buys him out...," Saward wrote on X.
As of now, no official confirmation has been announced by Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull, or Audi.
Yuki Tsunoda claimed that he had not spoken to Red Bull about a potential promotion or transfer
Yuki Tsunoda recently stated that he has not yet talked to Red Bull about his future with them or about moving away from the team. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, he said that as a driver, he would love to be in the best car as long as possible, which was Red Bull's at the moment. He later admitted that he has not spoken to the Austrian team about his future with or without them.
“I mean obviously as a driver you always want to be in a good car, the best car as much as possible, and currently Red Bull has that best car throughout the grid. Obviously, If I can be one day in a Red Bull, that will be great, that one especially. But the truth is I haven’t really spoken anything with them at all about the seat," Tsunoda said.
He later said that he was quite happy with his current team and talked about how well they have been performing in the 2024 F1 season.
"So yeah that's the truth and I'm quite happy with the VCARB as well, they are performing very well recently,” he added.
