Karun Chandhok apologises to ‘superb’ driver after saying he should lose F1 seat

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Karun Chandhok has admitted on the Sky Sports F1 podcast that he was wrong about one driver after calling for him to lose his seat. The composition of the F1 grid remained the same over the winter as every team opted to retain their line-up.

It was the first time in the sport’s history that this had happened, though it only took until February for Lewis Hamilton to shake up the 2025 field by joining Ferrari. A number of drivers managed to hold onto their drives for this year despite coming under pressure following underwhelming seasons.

Chief among them was Logan Sargeant at Williams, who only managed to score one point all season as teammate Alex Albon bagged 27. James Vowles gave the rookie a second chance, but warned him that he had to be the ‘surprise’ of the year to keep his spot.

Similarly, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll survived a huge deficit to teammate Fernando Alonso. Alonso finished fourth in the championship after scoring eight podiums, while Stroll ended up down in 10th without a single top-three finish to his name.

At the front of the field, Sergio Perez also clung on at Red Bull. The deficit between himself and world champion Max Verstappen was a record-breaking 290 points.

Perez consequently started this year in a vulnerable spot, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo among those eyeing his seat. However, Ricciardo has struggled relative to teammate Yuki Tsunoda at the beginning of the campaign, putting him at risk of losing his seat to Liam Lawson.

Karun Chandhok names one driver he owed an apology

Speaking on the podcast, Chandhok says he apologised to Tsunoda in Australia last month after making the case that he shouldn’t have been on the grid in 2024. The former HRT driver told RB to hire Lawson alongside Ricciardo, relegating Tsunoda to the sidelines.

The New Zealander had impressed in a five-race stint with the team in the second half of last year when Ricciardo was absent through injury. However, Tsunoda is now the top-scoring driver at F1’s bottom-five teams after adding another point to his tally in Japan last weekend.

Chandhok said: “My apology to Yuki Tsunoda over the Australian Grand Prix weekend was the right thing to do. I said last year that they should have signed Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo, and have Yuki as reserve. He’s, to my delight actually, proving me wrong, because he was superb all weekend.”

How Yuki Tsunoda ‘matched Max Verstappen’ in Japan

After a season-best seventh-place result in Australia, Tsunoda put together another fine weekend on home soil. He reached Q3 at the expense of teammate Ricciardo to continue his 2024 clean sweep, and then battled his way to a point on race day.

Red Bull director Helmut Marko said the ‘flawless’ 23-year-old had put on a ‘show’ with his overtaking and driven at the same level as race-winner Verstappen and sixth-place Alonso. F1 commentator Alex Jacques feels that Tsunoda is simply ‘oozing confidence’ right now.

Chandhok wasn’t the only one who doubted him coming into his fourth season in the sport. According to Jacques, some in the F1 paddock felt he was under pressure with Lawson waiting in the wings.

But he’s exceeded expectations all season and did so once again in Japan after RB played an ‘absolute blinder’ with his strategy. At the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend, he’ll go in search of a third-consecutive points-finish for the first time in his career.