Yuki Tsunoda is delighted with Racing Bulls’ pace in Miami and believes his team is well on the way to breaking through the phalanx of the top 5 teams
Yuki Tsunoda raves about the progress of his Racing Bulls team after the Formula 1 race in Miami and believes that they will soon be able to attack even the top 5 teams if the team can continue to improve
In the first races of the 2024 season, the Formula 1 field was divided into two halves, with the first half of the field taking the points unless something extraordinary happened. RB and Haas were always able to pick up crumbs, but the Racing Bulls in particular have made strong progress recently, resulting in a good result in Miami.
Tsunoda scored six points in the race in seventh place, which was added to his point from the sprint. Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo even finished fourth in the sprint, meaning that the team will fly home with twelve points this weekend.
This means that RB has already scored 19 points in 2024, almost as many as in the entire previous season. Back then, the team traveled to the world championship finale in Abu Dhabi with 21 points, where they scored a further four points.
In the battle for supremacy in the second half of the season, RB has already made a good start. “Unbelievable, the pace was there,” beams Tsunoda after the race in Miami, saying that he was almost on a par with Ferrari and McLaren in the final stint. “Something like that was not possible for us in the first races.”
“It just shows how hard we are pushing and the progress we are making this year,” said the Japanese driver. “And the fact that Daniel was fourth just shows how much pace there is in the car. “
Soon to be the secret favorite again?
Such statements had already been heard before the season. The Racing Bulls were considered to be the secret favorites for the top spots and even had their sights set on the podium. The disillusionment came in the first races, where Tsunoda repeatedly knocked on the door of the top 10 in qualifying, but then couldn’t do much in the race
It was not until the third race of the season that he scored his first points, while team-mate Ricciardo went from one failure to the next. However, the tide seemed to turn in China: With a new chassis, the Australian knew how to convince until he was knocked out of the race by Lance Stroll.
Tsunoda, on the other hand, had major problems and was also stranded at the side of the track prematurely after a collision with Kevin Magnussen. “I’ve already forgotten the race, I don’t want to be reminded of it,” he waved it off.
Top 5 teams in sight
He prefers to look at the current situation and the good prospects: “We’ve been around tenth place in every race, but it hasn’t stayed that way recently; we’ve even finished eighth, ninth, seventh or fourth. The progress is enormous,” he praises.
“Of course, we are not yet at the same level as Mercedes, for example, but today I was even able to set a faster pace than a Mercedes,” says Tsunoda. “And if we carry on like this, we’ll catch up with the top five teams at some point. At the moment, they are still too fast for us, but that is our goal now. “
The team has high hopes for the next race in Imola, which is a home race for many parts of the team. Last year, the race had to be canceled due to the flood disaster in Emilia-Romagna, which Tsunoda thinks is a shame, but this time it should be a successful event for the team.
“Hopefully we can have a good race and put on a good event for Emilia-Romagna after the difficulties last year. “
