People will say I’m clowning but I think a very large part of it might be driver marketability. Sure, Yuki comes with a nice wallet but he isn’t someone you’re using to sell cars and watches and whatever other luxury goods the teams engage with.
That being said, I fully expect him to go to AMR as soon as Alonso retires.
Id agree if they weren’t looking at Lawson who is pretty anonymous outside of New Zealand, it makes more sense with Danny as he is way more marketable, even now. Yuki does have reasonable power in Japan, which is a considerably larger economy than New Zealand, something like 3rd vs 53rd.
I could see Yuki going to AM, Lawrence would assume Lance could beat him, I am not so sure as Lance is worse than anybody Yukis already faced at RB. I would suspect he’ll go to Endurance with Honda as the more likely destination.
Marketing is an interesting one because Red Bull have one financial objective: marketing for their drinks. I’ve heard it said that Perez was very good for Red Bull marketing in Latin America as he’s a popular guy, I don’t see why Tsunoda or Lawson couldn’t fit into the “Xtreme Dude-Bro” marketing role if they needed them to.
“Popular guy” doesn’t quite tell the whole story. I personally don’t get the appeal, but for whatever reason Perez is incomprehensibly popular. I think he’s like the 2nd most famous athlete in Mexico, he sells the most merch out of anyone on the whole grid and has brought a slew of sponsors to Red Bull. This is in addition to any Carlos Slim money.
It is definitely an appealing financial package.
