Under the lights of the Las Vegas GP, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda started in 7th, and finished in 9th, bagging a respectable points finish for the team — the driver is confident that he deserves a spot on the grid next year, and potentially a promotion to Red Bull.
His impressive drive, in a less than ideal car, has reignited rumours that the Japanese driver will replace Red Bull’s Checo Pérez for the 2025 season.
He passed Oscar Piastri in the early stages of the race as the Australian suffered with a lot of graining. However, the MCL38 ultimately proved too quick.
In the closing stages he was passed by Nico Hülkenberg as Haas created a tyre offset.
“I did the maximum that I can”
Tsunoda’s ninth-place finish was nothing short of vital for RB’s position in the constructors standings. The team are currently in 8th, just 3 points away from Alpine in 7th, and 4 points behind Haas in 6th.
“It was a pretty tough race… I think as a team we made such a good step throughout the race week, but compared to Haas and Alpine, I think we’re still missing a couple of things.”
Las Vegas’ demanding layout, a mix of long straights and technical corners, was always going to test the VCARB’s package.
The car’s ongoing struggle with straight-line speed was clear, but Tsunoda vitally scored points for the team and finished ahead of Pérez.
“Scoring points was good… I made minimum damage (to the car) in the end.
“Finishing ahead of Pérez… I did the maximum that I can.”
Red Bull seat speculation
Since joining their junior team, Tsunoda is confident about a promotion to the senior team but has faced speculation about his future and potential promotion to Red Bull.
Whilst Daniel Ricciardo, and now Liam Lawson have sat in the other RB seat, no movement has occurred for Tsunoda since 2021. As he waits for Pérez’s Red Bull seat to become available, Lawson, and possibly Ricciardo, are also now rumoured to be in talks for the same seat.
Speaking about this, Tsundoa claimed, “There was a time that probably I started to get impatient,” but then noted, “It’s just part of the life… I just have to keep doing what I’m doing.
“I’m the one who’s racing still now, and whoever they keep sending to beat me, I just keep destroying them, so that’s it, that’s what I’m going to do.”
It’s a bold statement, but with the team watching him closely, he’s building a compelling case for a long-term future in Formula 1.
Upgrade issues and confidence looking forward to Qatar
RB entered the weekend with confidence in their improved performance due to recent upgrades, yet the Las Vegas GP exposed the same weaknesses in their package.
Speaking about the remaining races on the 2024 calendar, Tsunoda noted that, “ideally we want to have a good car from FP1 to build the confidence.
“This current field is really tight in qualifying, so yeah, we have to be more spot on and for me, for myself, feeling confident going to Qatar, it will be definitely a tight field, tight fight, but we have to do it.
“Even one tenth was definitely affecting quite a lot, in the qualifying… those milliseconds will be very important. As an overall performance, it’s small, but I think there’s improvement.
“Tracks that have a lot of straight-line speeds, we tend to suffer,” Tsunoda admitted, highlighting the team’s difficulties in performing on circuits like Qatar and Las Vegas.
In Las Vegas, “Luckily, unfortunately, Pierre had a DNF, but, you know, I’ve been showing definitely a strong pace this week and last week.”
As the team battles for sixth in the Constructors’ Standings against Haas and Alpine, every point matters. Only two races are left to see which team comes out on top!
