Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko feels Yuki Tsunoda's outing with the senior team in the post-race Abu Dhabi test has helped dispel concerns about a potential weakness in his Formula 1 arsenal.
Red Bull's 2025 driver line-up remains in limbo as it seeks a formal resolution to Sergio Perez's situation, with the Mexican under contract for 2025 and 2026 but expected to depart Red Bull's driver ranks early once a financial agreement is reached.
In what appeared to be a reference to reports of Perez holding out for a massive buyout, Marko wrote in his regular column with the Red Bull-owned outlet Speedweek.com: "On the question of what the driver pairing will look like next year, we will have news in the next days.
"There is much speculation and also sums being cited as possible transfer fees that are complete nonsense."
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It is known that the replacement for Perez should be one of Tsunoda and his occasional RB team-mate Liam Lawson - and it is known that Lawson is a strong favourite to win that particular race due to Red Bull being impressed by how close he's run Tsunoda so early into his F1 career while having reservations about the Japanese driver that include his ability to maintain composure (which would be tested even further as team-mate to Max Verstappen) and the quality of his feedback to engineers.
On the second point, however, Marko said Tsunoda gave the senior team a good account of himself.
"The team was happy with his technical feedback," he claimed. "In this regard he is far better than it is said."
Marko's sentiment corroborates what Tsunoda himself said, as quoted by Motorsport.com, during a customary appearance in Honda's end-of-year event.
It also backs up Red Bull's head of performance engineer Ben Waterhouse referencing Tsunoda's "excellent feedback" in Red Bull-published comments in the immediate aftermath of the test.
While all that does amount to some momentum for Tsunoda's candidacy, Marko also made a point of specifying that he was "just one of the many talents" on Red Bull's books right now.
And it is widely understood that convincing Marko has never been the biggest obstacle between Tsunoda and the coveted seat at the main team.
Marko has never shied away from criticising Tsunoda off the back of a subpar weekend or a high-profile mistake - but has long been though to be much more amenable to seeing him as Verstappen's team-mate than other senior figures in Red Bull's F1 structure.
And given it is not a decision he can make unilaterally, the bigger questions remains whether Tsunoda's Abu Dhabi test feedback and conduct, coupled with a relatively assured end of the season, was somehow enough to finally appease his real sceptics.