RB’s Yuki Tsunoda says he feels ‘more in control’ and more secure in his place at the Faenza team following today’s points-scoring Imola GP.
The Japanese driver, clawed back a vital point in today’s Grand Prix after a compromising race start, doing it in front of his team’s home crowd. RB have struggled to get off the mark this season, but after a successful run of upgrades, they appear to be on their way. Daniel Ricciardo missed out on points in P13.
Speaking after today’s race, Tsunoda reflected on the effects of a busy start at lights-out;
“Today’s start for sure compromised our race, and with normal start and keeping the position would for sure help me to have a much, much easier race, and probably ended up a step higher position today, but so we have to improve that start for the future. But for sure I’m very, very happy that we’re able to score points at least in home Grand Prix, especially a lot of people from coming from the factory, a lot of the blue t-shirt with the ‘RB’, so yeah, I’ll take it.”
The RB driver’s optimistic attitude is, as he admits himself, a far cry from the hot-headed rookie who first got into the seat in 2021. The now 24-year-old admits he’s more relaxed, even with a slow start to the season for the team. With much chatter circulating about who will be driving for them next year, Tsunoda’s clarity after a points-scoring Imola GP is a sure sign of an evolving driver;
“I feel more relaxed in the car, for sure, I’m not like drinking tea or whatever, but yeah, I just, I would say I can see more bigger picture, I would say, able to communicate more with the engineers, everything, feeling more control, so I know what exactly, what task I have to do, what target I need to achieve, so you know, feels like less rushing at every moment.
“That helps for sure to overtake Williams, because Williams, I would say for sure, very frustrating car to overtake, to be honest, because the straight line speed was very, very fast, but especially when two years ago, myself, I would easily press the radio, lose my control, and probably ended up in a much worse situation, so for sure, in that places, I feel improvement, and I mean, team helped me to for sure improve myself, so big credit to the team.”
Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202405190572 /
[adrotate banner=”9″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.