Sergio Perez fired strong warning as F1 rival issues bold contract demand to Red Bull

Yuki Tsunoda has insisted that he is happy at VCARB as he continues to pressure Sergio Perez for the seat alongside Max Verstappen. The Japanese racer made clear that the 34-year-old still ‘has to perform’ after securing his new contract.

Perez was awarded a new two-year contract ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, despite scoring a podium in just one of his last five outings. This decision raised some eyebrows and left Tsunoda frustrated following an exceptional start to his fourth season in F1.

At the start of the year, the general expectation was that Tsunoda would have his work cut out to beat Daniel Ricciardo in the VCARB intra-team battle. That has not been the case though, and the 24-year-old left Monte Carlo with five points finishes from eight races having contributed 19 of his team’s 24 points.

Despite being the most impressive candidate for the second Red Bull seat, he was overlooked by Christian Horner. However, Tsunoda isn’t giving up on impressing the reigning champions in the long run and he shares VCARB’s desire to keep him at Faenza for the 2025 campaign and beyond.

He does have some demands though. “I would like to see more commitment from the contract,” Tsunoda said. “Obviously I’m already committed with Red Bull a lot and hopefully I can have a bit more commitment from them.

“There’s an ongoing discussion and I want to make sure first of all we’re on the same page with Red Bull after that we’ll see. But I’m happy with RB. Even these two years [Perez] has to still perform and in this kind of environment, anything can happen.

“So, congratulations to him and other than that, for me, I just keep focusing on what I’m doing and just proving myself. I just have to grow more and at the same time, hopefully, Red Bull will understand more or see more of my progress and my potential performance and maybe [it] can change in the future.”

Tsunoda’s desire to stay at VCARB is shared by Helmut Marko, who has been very supportive of the Japanese driver in 2024. Discussing the state of the sister team’s next driver pairing ahead of the race in Montreal, he told Austrian news outlet Kleine Zeitung: "Yuki Tsunoda is set, that's clear.”