Yuki Tsunoda radio message during Japanese GP practice speaks volumes as Red Bull fans react

Yuki Tsunoda's team radio messages to his Red Bull team spoke volumes during practice for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

Tsunoda was promoted to the Red Bull team in place of Liam Lawson last week, just two Grands Prix into the 2025 season.

The Japanese driver stated that his main aim is to compete with - and attempt to finish ahead of - team-mate Max Verstappen.

Tsunoda was denied a promotion to the team ahead of the 2025 season, with Lawson chosen ahead of him to replace Sergio Perez.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko previously claimed that Tsunoda's consistency and his attitude over team radio were two factors behind the decision to keep him at Racing Bulls.

In a pre-race press conference on Thursday, Tsunoda claimed that Marko was 'surprisingly' yet to call him over his Red Bull move.

But during the session, the Japanese driver proved again why Red Bull were right to give him an opportunity with one of his first radio messages to race engineer Richard Wood.

After setting a lap time that was nearly four tenths behind Verstappen, Tsunoda immediately called it a 'bad lap'.

Tsunoda was also regularly giving feedback on the car to his team - one thing that Red Bull were 'impressed' with when he tested with the team in Abu Dhabi last season.

When Wood gave him updates on how other drivers were performing, Tsunoda said: "Yeah, I think let's focus on ourselves. I don't need much reference time."

And at the end of the first session, he commented: "Also quite messy, I think... I can give you feedback, but I found the car quite interesting on the track. But yeah, it's okay... good sesh!"

Tsunoda eventually finished just a tenth behind Verstappen in sixth place in the first practice session.

He was down in 16th in practice two but didn't get a representative soft tyre lap in, unlike most other drivers, due to various red flags.

Reacting to Tsunoda's debut practice outings for Red Bull on Twitter, one F1 fan wrote: "He's doing a great job. Excellent start to his weekend."

Another said: "Yuki was impressive out there. Very focused."

A third added: "Let the second Red Bull seat curse be over."

And a fourth stated: "I know he was the right guy for the job."