Some quotes from the Formula 1 site on 28/29 March:
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Tsunoda 'proving to the people' with his performances as he reflects on strong start to 2024
Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points of the season in Australia with a mature drive to eighth at the flag – which became seventh thanks to Fernando Alonso’s post-race penalty. That result lifted RB above Haas in the constructors’ standings into sixth, a just reward for a team that have been knocking on the door of points since Bahrain.
“The team did a fantastic job throughout the week, consistent from FP1, top 10 consistently and finally able to score the points. We just needed these points to have a good start to the season,” he said afterwards.
“I would say very, very happy with my performance. I think particularly this week we were very consistent. Also, the qualifying last three races, pretty good as well.
"I needed a bit of a good race, clean race to prove I could also have a good, strong race not just the qualifying and I think this was a good race – this as the race I was able to prove [that] and I just keep to what I’m doing and hopefully also I can score points in Suzuka as well.”
Tsunoda’s home race is up next, and with Suzuka also boasting some of the high-speed corners that characterise Albert Park, RB will be confident they can replicate this kind of result.
“I’m feeling pretty confident because the car is performing consistently since Bahrain. We were kind of lacking performance lats year, some of the tracks were kind of disasters but so far this season we didn’t have it, we just consistently perform well so I’m sure we’ll perform well in Suzuka and other tracks as well.
“It’s just a matter of focussing on ourselves, in such a tight midfield, anything can happen. Any mistakes will change high positions easily so yeah, just focus on ourselves and just squeeze a few more milliseconds from the car.”
With a potential seat up for grabs at Red Bull next year, not to mention the threat of Liam Lawson who did so well when he stood in for Daniel Ricciardo last year, it is an interesting time to be in the Red Bull stable for Tsunoda.
“As for myself, I just keep proving [with] my performance not just the talking, it’s my style – just showing the result and just proving to the people. I’m happy I’m able to show my performance and people are looking at me more than in the last three years so yeah, this is a good sign.
"Just keep improving what I’m doing and with Daniel [Ricciardo], still just working really, really well and hopefully we can make the car fast and fight against Aston Martin, Mercedes – those cars.”
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RB driver Daniel Ricciardo has opened up about his difficult start to the 2024 season
Speaking after his home race at Albert Park, and what he needs to unlock from the RB package going forward, Ricciardo said: “It’s a two-part process now. Obviously I look as much as I can into myself, into data, into onboards, how I’m driving, what’s making me do certain things.
“Then is that self-induced or is that something coming from the car which isn’t giving me the feeling I want? Then I’m asking the engineers lots of questions, because the car is pretty much the same as last year. Obviously it’s a different car but it’s not that we’ve changed the whole philosophy – the handling and the characteristics are fairly similar.
“I think that’s why we’re probably a little bit, maybe unsure why we’re struggling so much, and certainly Yuki is very, very comfortable with it. It’s pretty similar, so we’ll keep working. I’m trying to get them to go around the car with a magnifying glass as well and make sure nothing’s off!
“As a driver you put everything you can into it but you want to ask as many questions as possible and make sure we’ve got everything as it should [be]. I’m sure we’ll find something, keep our head straight and keep our eyes on the prize, I guess.”
“I know how I feel, and maybe not everyone does, but it’s a very different situation to McLaren,” he made clear. “I think especially in 2022 I was running on very, very little confidence, I was kind of confused with the car and I didn’t really understand it. That was a completely different thing and this isn’t that.
“We’re certainly not achieving what we thought we would be but it’s not through just being lost or losing confidence or anything. We know we can do it, I thought it would have happened this weekend, unfortunately it didn’t. But we’re not going to start letting the noise creep in, just stay true to the course and it’ll turn around.”