In the days after the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull announced that Lawson would return to Racing Bulls from the Japanese Grand Prix onwards while Tsunoda would take his place at the main outfit alongside Verstappen, meaning that Tsunoda will make his debut for the team in front of his home crowd at Suzuka.
Speaking exclusively to F1.com, Perez voiced his hopes that his former team can improve after a tough start to the campaign and also gave his backing to Tsunoda ahead of the 24-year-old’s first race for the squad.
“I really want the team to do well, as I have a lot of friends at the team,” said Perez. “I spent four years with them and I want to see them doing well. It’s just a very hard thing to talk about.
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“Right now, I’m on the outside, I’ve been in touch with some team members there – but when you’re not there internally, it’s hard to know [what’s happening].
“For me, it was very simple, the car is just quite difficult to get 100% out of it, to get the confidence out of it – and the things I struggled with, even Adrian [Newey, the team’s former design chief] talked about them.
“But I want to wish them the best. Woody, who is a great friend of mine, is engineering Yuki now so I really hope they do well.
