Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda impressed in 2024, and he is 11th in our F1 Driver Rankings.
Puts Ricciardo in the shade early doors
At the start of the campaign, Tsunoda was rapid in qualifying and took advantage of when the RB was at its best. He led the qualifying head-to-head 7-1 a third of the way into the 2024 season.
The 24-year-old scored points in five of the first eight races, with a best result of P7 in Australia and Miami. Seven Q3 appearances in the first nine round showed the car had speed. Tsunoda was generally the one delivering.
Things start to get tougher
RB brought an update to the Spanish Grand Prix — but it did not work. It was the start of their performance decline as they eventually fell from a comfortable P6 to P8 in the Constructors’ Championship. Haas and Alpine outdeveloped them.
At the same point, Daniel Ricciardo’s qualifying performances started to improve. It was 5-5 on Saturday from Canada through to Singapore after Tsunoda’s extremely strong start.
After grabbing those four points in Monaco, the driver of car number 22 was outscored 3-7 by the Australian before Ricciardo was booted following the Singapore GP.
Facing up against Liam Lawson
In the final six rounds of the season, Tsunoda and Lawson went head-to-head at RB. It turns out they were fighting for the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen.
Grand Prix qualifying went Tsunoda’s way as he won out an impressive 6-0. In points, it was 8-4 in favour of the Japanese driver.
At the São Paulo GP last month, Tsunoda delivered a career best qualifying performance as he put his car P3 on the grid in very wet conditions.
The 24-year-old drove a very mature race but got shafted by the Safety Car/red flag period as RB made the right call to switch to wets. He had to settle for P7 following Oscar Piastri’s time penalty.
Arguably his best weekend of the year came in Las Vegas. He qualified P7, splitting the McLarens in the process. Tsunoda was also over a second quicker than Lawson in Q2.
The race itself saw the Japanese driver involved in a race long battle with Nico Hülkenberg, and the German ultimately got P8 by 3s in the end thanks to a pass late in the Grand Prix as Haas created a tyre offset.
Nonetheless, it was a very strong weekend from Tsunoda as he firmly put his Kiwi teammate in the shade.
His best season so far
In a year where he needed to impress as Sergio Pérez completely fell away, Tsunoda did. He beat Ricciardo and Lawson in the qualifying and points head-to-heads.
After a very challenging 2021 season where he could easily have lost his seat following that rookie campaign, the 24-year-old has come on leaps and bounds over the last three seasons, establishing himself as a dependable and fast driver.
Along with his gains in consistency in qualifying and the race, he has become mature inside the car as well. While pretty much driver loses their temper over the radio — something the Japanese driver is unfairly criticised for compared to everyone else — Tsunoda admitted he needed to be calmer and have more emotional control in high pressure situations. He has achieved that.
Although he looks set to miss out on the Red Bull seat to Liam Lawson, Tsunoda can be very proud of the season he put together.
2025 looks set to be a year where he will need to impress other teams as Honda’s relationship with Red Bull ends, likely leading to his time ending in that stable. On the basis of 2023 and 2024, he can achieve that.
