Uncertainty is growing over the future of Daniil Kvyat at AlphaTauri beyond 2020.
The Russian was drafted back into the Red Bull fold last year, replacing Brendon Hartley, and enjoyed a solid return, highlighted by a third place finish at Hockenheim.
However, Kvyat has only scored two points in the first six races of this season and has largely been outclassed by teammate Pierre Gasly.
“Yes, Daniil does not perform as we expected,” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko told SpeedWeek. “But we are still just before half-time.
“(Yuki) Tsunoda in Formula 2 and (Liam) Lawson in Formula 3 are currently in positions that qualify for a super-licence, but we are not thinking of exchanging Kvyat.”
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That final comment may well come with an asterisk though because Tsunoda has enjoyed an impressive start to the F2 season, currently sitting fourth in the standings.
“First of all, Red Bull and Honda are supporting Tsunoda because he is a fantastic driver,” AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost told the Italian version of Motorsport.com.
“He is a very talented driver, he has so many qualities that he showed in Formula 3 last year and that he is showing again this year.
“I remember the race in Austria, when he ran in wet track conditions he was at the top of the leaderboard, he was leading the race, but due to a radio failure he was called to the pits too late to make the pit stop and anyway, he finished second. Then at Silverstone, he won the race.
“He is still improving his performance, he is becoming more and more experienced and I expect to have him, sooner or later, in AlphaTauri, clearly.”
To be eligible for the necessary superlicence to compete in F1, Tsunoda needs to finish fifth or better in the F2 standings this season.
And the Japanese driver admits he needs to maintain his current level of results.
“For sure I need wins,” he was quoted by Motorsport Week. “I already lost quite a lot of points at the beginning of the season.
“I think the biggest thing is I need consistency, [in Austria we got] zero points, then the second [race a] podium, and then zero points, now we got a first podium in first place. It’s still not consistent.
“I expect a lot of wins in the future, and to have good points for the drivers’ standings and hopefully I can get [a] seat for 2021 in AlphaTauri.”