“He will finally be ready for Red Bull” - A surprise Perez replacement for 2025?

Tsunoda scored AlphaTauri’s first point of the season at the Australian Grand Prix, finishing 10th.

This came after back-to-back P11 finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Even though AlphaTauri have struggled for outright pace, Tsunoda has been a shining light for Red Bull’s sister team.

With Pierre Gasly leaving AlphaTauri at the end of last year for Alpine, there was some debate over whether Tsunoda or Nyck de Vries would become the team’s leader.

In the first three rounds, de Vries has been no match for Tsunoda as he tries to get up to grips with F1 in his rookie season.

Tost - who has been AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso) team principal since 2006 - believes Tsunoda will be ready to drive for Red Bull in 2025.

"Yuki drove two extremely strong races so far," Tost said ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. 

"I am very happy with him. It's not his fault that we aren't competitive yet." 

"As far as I know, Sergio Perez still has a contract for next year. All I can say is that Yuki is on the right track. He has improved in every respect. 

“But I think he should drive at AlphaTauri again in 2024. In 2025, I think he will finally be ready for Red Bull."

Reflecting on his own performance in Melbourne over the weekend, Tsunoda was left wanting more after running as high as fifth at one point.

“I mean, without the red flag I score points in P5,” he added. “These things happened behind myself after I passed Pierre [Gasly], so even without the incident I was having a P5.

“So it mega sucked after the red flag, a mega shame; I’ve been frustrated to end up P10.”