Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo are all vying for an AlphaTauri seat in 2024 and one of them will miss out; watch the Japanese GP live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend, starting with Practice One at 3:30am on Friday, followed by Practice 2 at 7am
Thursday 21 September 2023 08:43, UK
Yuki Tsunoda has hinted AlphaTauri will choose Daniel Ricciardo to drive for the team over Liam Lawson in Formula 1 next year.
AlphaTauri are yet to confirm their 2024 driver line-up but Tsunoda is looking likely to be retained in one of the seats.
Lawson's impressive start to life in F1 has given Red Bull a lot to consider, as the New Zealander finished ninth at the Singapore Grand Prix to underline his credentials.
Ricciardo broke his metacarpal at the Dutch Grand Prix in August and will not return until the Qatar Grand Prix on October 6-8 at the earliest.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 who he would prefer to have as his team-mate in 2024, Tsunoda said: "Both perspectives it's positive. Daniel brings more experience and he showed a lot of feedback.
"He can definitely tell more details about how the car is behaving. I think the engineers like it, especially how he talks and helps the development side. If the team wants to develop the car more to be competitive, maybe Daniel.
"But, at the same time, Liam showed in the first three races immediately he showed a good performance and is probably still progressing.
"I've just done two races with Daniel and it was probably not the best time for AlphaTauri. When Liam came to F1, the car was pretty good at Monza and Singapore, so he had a good time. At the same time, he performed well.
"AlphaTauri itself, we know it's like a junior team. At the same time, there is a bit more risk and we have to think about the results in general.
"Depends on what they are thinking. If they want more results, probably Daniel. He has more experience and can extract results maybe. But also Liam…I don't know, it's hard to say. It's scary to say!"
The driver who misses out on a racing seat is expected to be offered a reserve driver role for Red Bull and AlphaTauri next season.
Lawson will have another chance to impress this weekend at Suzuka, a track he drove at earlier this year in Super Formula, and has made it clear he doesn't want to spend a year on the F1 sidelines.
"I wouldn't be happy to go back to being reserve. Obviously, I know how hard it is to get into Formula 1 and I understand that that can be really difficult sometimes," said the 21-year-old.
"So obviously, what will happen, will happen, but these things I just haven't really thought about too much. I'm just trying to make the most of this."
He added: "There hasn't been a huge amount of time to discuss the future. On what's happened so far, it's been pretty positive.
"But I guess the message for me has just been to keep my head down now and try and keep delivering until obviously things clear up, until this opportunity I have ends when Daniel comes back. It's basically just doing a good job but keep doing the same thing.
"Obviously, I want to be in Formula 1. Now I have this chance, I'm trying to do everything I can to show that I can be here. But in terms of all those discussions, those will happen after this weekend."
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Get ready to set those early alarms as Formula 1 now heads to Suzuka for the Japanese GP. Watch all sessions live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW. Cancel anytime
