The announcement of a new contract for Yuki Tsunoda was met with a rather predictable response on social media.
Many were pleased to hear the news – after all, the Japanese driver's fun-loving personality makes him an extremely likeable person, especially when taking part in silly challenges. The social media and content creation teams at Red Bull must be chuffed to bits.
Another opinion, especially popular among the anonymous accounts that dwell the comments sections on Twitter (twits?), is that renewing the 22-year-old's AlphaTauri contract is a mistake. Why? Most suggestions being that he is "washed", "finished" or [insert any other asinine adjective here].
There's no denying Tsunoda comes with baggage. The main takeaway from his first season in Formula 1 was that he was no stranger to a spin or crash in some pretty bizarre circumstances. Plus, as viewers of Netflix docu-drama Drive to Survive found out, he really is not a fan of Milton Keynes.
Sadly, his second season in the sport is also not likely to be remembered for anything he did specifically on the track – other than shout and swear a lot. Tsunoda's hot-headed actions under his racing helmet saw him labelled as a "problem child" by Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko earlier this summer.
But still, they have kept the faith. A contract extension is a show of confidence in the Japanese racer's ability to grow up a little and start putting his money where his mouth is – producing the results needed of him, and preferably with less of the backchat over team radio.
There have been some suggestions that the fact AlphaTauri have decided to stick with Tsunoda is an indicator that Red Bull's driver academy is not currently as stacked with talent as it once was. That may well be true – but I prefer to believe they still think they can tap into the very, very fast driver that definitely lives within their current man.
After all, the likes of Marko and AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost do not suffer fools. There is no way experienced and tough teachers like them would waste their time and efforts on a lost cause – clearly there is a feeling that by chipping away at Tsunoda's personality they might finally uncover the real racer within.
Tost himself said of the 22-year-old earlier this month : "He has to get under control his emotions and he must be more disciplined." It was interesting to note that, in the official announcement of Tsunoda's new deal, the team boss made it clear that he feels "a driver needs at least three years to fully get to grips with Formula 1".
Sixteenth place in the drivers' standings with 11 points is simply not good enough in a driver's second year. But in the Japanese's defence, AlphaTauri have struggled to be at all competitive at times this season, with Pierre Gasly also struggling to extract any sort of performance from the AT03 of late.
Tsunoda deserves this third year in F1, and hopefully he will be given a car good enough to get the results AlphaTauri need to be a top midfield side. Only if he fails then, will it be fair for Red Bull to cut their losses and move onto their next option.
