The 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has hit again at options Yuki Tsunoda has been performing higher in Components 1, suggesting Pink Bull has been “overprotecting” him.
Though he’s down 21-0 to Max Verstappen of their qualifying head-to-head, Tsunoda had certainly one of his finest performances to this point on the Mexico Grand Prix, with ‘simply’ a 0.211s deficit to Pink Bull’s lead automobile as he went out in Q2.
Within the race, a delayed pitstop aimed toward hindering Verstappen’s rivals price Tsunoda a possible ninth place – or a possible prime six/seven, the Japanese racer has claimed – with Pink Bull workforce principal Laurent Mekies proudly owning as much as ‘killing a couple of factors [Tsunoda] would have scored on benefit’.
“Yuki had his finest weekend in a very long time,” the Frenchman insisted. “We’ve got mentioned that a couple of occasions, however it’s true.”
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Villeneuve, nonetheless, strongly disagreed with Mekies’ stance on Sky Sports activities’ F1 Present podcast.
“I do not perceive how a workforce can say, ‘Oh, he is had a very good weekend’. Higher than perhaps different weekends he is had, however is it a very good weekend?” he rhetorically contemplated.
“He is nonetheless very far off his team-mate. He isn’t bringing something to the desk both in tempo, factors for the workforce, or serving to Max for the championship.
Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Pink Bull Racing
Photograph by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Photos
“And he has a number of expertise. We have seen one of the best of him, he is already on the way in which down, so plainly they’re overprotecting him for some motive.
“However no, you possibly can’t say that was a very good weekend. It was perhaps his least unhealthy, nevertheless it wasn’t a very good weekend.”
As Pink Bull retains pondering choices to select Verstappen’s team-mate for F1’s new technical period in 2026, Tsunoda’s 5 seasons’ price of expertise doesn’t imply a lot to Villeneuve.
“All of us discuss, in a scenario like this, ‘you want expertise’ – and sure, I agree, however you want good expertise,” the Canadian argued.
“It does not matter if a driver has 20 years of racing. If he wasn’t good or adequate, he nonetheless will not be adequate, and he nonetheless will not allow you to to know the brand new laws. He nonetheless will not allow you to to develop and check that automobile, so why would you set a identified amount that is just not adequate?
“In that case, you may as properly go for the younger rookie or left-field, take somebody and take an opportunity that can deliver new power and a brand new thought course of to the workforce. What you have already got, it will not lower it.”
Present Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar is the favorite to get the second Pink Bull seat for 2026, following a formidable rookie F1 season that included a podium end at Zandvoort. He presently lies tenth within the standings, whereas Tsunoda is down in seventeenth, with 39 factors to twenty-eight.
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