“The faster guy will stay or go up”: Yuki Tsunoda mindful of Daniel Ricciardo competition for the Red Bull F1 seat

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda has openly admitted to wanting the second Red Bull seat in the future.

Daniel Ricciardo will return to the Formula 1 grid as an AlphaTauri driver this weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix. This will be a chance for him to prove his worth for the second Red Bull seat in the near future, but his new mate also has the same goal.

F1 Grand Prix of Hungary - Previews

Daniel Ricciardo is a eight time race winner and has 32 podium finishes. Tsunoda, on the other hand, only has 46 points in his young career. Thus, the pressure on the 23-year-old to perform this season will be immense.

"Daniel is not an easy driver to beat, but at the same time I’ll do what I did in the last couple of races and it’s clear the faster guy will stay or go up, that’s it," Tsunoda told Crash.net.

In the ten races so far this season, Yuki Tsunoda has managed to score only two points whilst his ex-teammate Nyck de Vries failed to score any points at all. Teaming up with a experienced driver like Ricciardo will be a challenge. But if he wants to drive for Red Bull, Tsunoda has to prove he has the pace worthy of the grid's frontrunners.

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Yuki Tsunoda opens up about Nyck de Vries' sudden exit

Two days after the British Grand Prix and only ten races into his F1 career, Nyck de Vries was replaced at AlphaTauri by Daniel Ricciardo. De Vries was under growing scrutiny as he was one of only two drivers having failed to finish in the points so far this season.

Speaking on his teammate's sudden exit, Yuki Tsunoda said (via RaceFans.net):

"I learned from him and we also had a good time away from the track. He had plenty of experience in other categories and gave the team good feedback based on his knowledge."

When asked if he is excited to have a new teammate, he said:

"I'll benefit from having a very good, experienced driver as a teammate. I'm sure I can learn lots of things from him and I also expect he will be able to bring something to the team and move the car development forward."

Daniel Ricciardo will be Yuki Tsunoda's third teammate after Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries.