18-year-old Red Bull junior reacts to being dropped from the program just 8 months after deduction

Red Bull junior driver Kacper Sztuka claimed that he was removed from the Austrian team's junior program after just eight months. The Polish driver was selected by the Milton Keynes outfit for their junior program in November 2023 after his eye-catching performances in the Italian Formula 4 and Formula Winter Series in the USA.

The junior program has produced world champions like Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel along with other star drivers such as Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda.

Sztuka posted a series of tweets in Polish about his contract's termination by the Red Bull junior program, saying (via PlanetF1):

“In recent weeks, the contract with Red Bull’s junior program was terminated at the initiative of the partner. Until the end of the cooperation, my starts, functioning in the team, and the progress I made was positively assessed by all people working directly with me. Thank you very much to everyone who has been involved in the project that I have been a part of since November 2023."

He clarified that his current F3 campaign with MP Motorsports, where he sits in P19, will not affected by the decision and further thanked his sponsors for their support while claiming that he would shift his focus to the remaining races in the 2024 season.

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Helmut Marko gives his take on Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda's chances of joining the parent team

Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko stated that RB driver Yuki Tsunoda needed to continue his results and performances in the 2024 season.

As per Autosport, the Austrian said about the Japanese driver's development as a driver:

"He has to continue to perform like he does now. Let’s see what the future brings then. His development is really good, although it came a little bit later than we expected, but he is now a top driver I would say."

"This is the first season in which Yuki is consistently fast and he is controlling his emotions, which was his biggest problem before. To be fair to him, he had always flashes of speed, but this year besides the China race he is consistently fast. Of course, it is changing his profile," he added.

Yuki Tsunoda is also a part of the Honda Racing Program and made his debut in the sport in 2021 after impressing everyone in his sole year in F2 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, he has been slowly progressing in his career with the Visa Cash App RB team to becoming one of the breakout drivers of the 2024 season. He currently sits in P10 in the Drivers' Championship with 19 points, two places ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, after nine races and two Sprints thus far.