Helmut Marko hints Adrian Newey was obstacle to Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull promotion

“In general, however, a lot can be attributed to a single incident. Tsunoda once drove into Pierre Gasly’s car there [at the 2022 British Grand Prix], and parts of the cars on the track subsequently damaged the underbody of Verstappen’s car, which caused him to lose the race. “Adrian Newey was furious at the time. From then on, Yuki was a red flag to him. But now Newey is gone and Yuki has worked hard on himself.”

Given what is publicly known about Newey and his attitudes towards driver hiring decisions, this actually feels believable. Remember how we were repeatedly were told that Gasly had zero chances to return to the Red Bull seat, after allegedly getting into a confrontation with Newey? If they had promoted Yuki earlier that might have caused displeasure inside the team if people thought him to still be crash-prone and making too many accidents.

2 comments

What utter bullshit
“In general, however, a lot can be attributed to a single incident. Tsunoda once drove into Pierre Gasly’s car there [at the 2022 British Grand Prix], and parts of the cars on the track subsequently damaged the underbody of Verstappen’s car, which caused him to lose the race. “Adrian Newey was furious at the time. From then on, Yuki was a red flag to him. But now Newey is gone and Yuki has worked hard on himself.”
Given what is publicly known about Newey and his attitudes towards driver hiring decisions, this actually feels believable. Remember how we were repeatedly were told that Gasly had zero chances to return to the Red Bull seat, after allegedly getting into a confrontation with Newey? If they had promoted Yuki earlier that might have caused displeasure inside the team if people thought him to still be crash-prone and making too many accidents.