“Underestimated” Yuki Tsunoda draws ultimate praise from Red Bull senior figure 

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has praised Yuki Tsunoda, calling the driver 'underestimated'. Marko has pointed out that despite the AlphaTauri being notoriously difficult to drive, Tsunoda has managed to perform well alongside his now-former teammate Nyck de Vries.

De Vries was recently sacked by the team in favor of Daniel Ricciardo, who will drive next to Tsunoda, starting in Hungary. Ricciardo is being loaned to the Red Bull sister team because of his excellent simulator testing results on the RB19.

De Vries has failed to impress with the Scuderia team despite being hired for his one-off F1 debut in Monza last year. The Dutchman was always much slower than his counterpart Yuki Tsunoda, who has improved massively over the course of the year.

Speaking about Tsunoda and Ricciardo, Helmut Marko said, as per de telegraaf:

"From Ricciardo, we first have to see how he compares to Tsunoda. I think Yuki is underestimated by a lot of people. The AlphaTauri is not the easiest car to drive, but Yuki has proven that it is possible to get good results."

It will be interesting to see Yuki Tsunoda go head-to-head with Daniel Ricciardo, the latter of whom has been out of the sport since the end of last year.

Yuki Tsunoda to join Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Formula Nürburgring

AlphaTauri announced recently that Tsunoda will join F1 legend Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo at the Red Bull Formula Nurburgring in September. The Japanese driver will be driving a Honda NSX GT3 Evo at the event.

After the Red Bull Nurburgring show, Tsunoda will become the youngest driver ever to drive around the challenging Nürburgring Nordschleife. The AlphaTauri driver expressed his excitement over getting to drive a GT3 car around the infamous German circuit, claiming that he has only ever driven the track in the Gran Turismo video game series.

Speaking via AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda said:

“I’ve never driven at the Nürburgring before, so I’m really looking forward to the event in September. I can’t wait to drive around it in my HONDA NSX GT3 Evo, which is an incredible car and a proven race-winning machine at the highest level of GT3 competition”.

He continued:

“The Nordschleife is a legendary circuit, I just experienced it on the Gran Turismo videogame and already enjoyed it a lot.”

With the Red Bull event likely to be a hoot, it will be thrilling to watch the young driver take on the Green Hell.