Yuki Tsunoda finished just outside the points in 12th place at the season opener in the F1 Australian GP after rain caused chaos in the closing stages, with Helmut Marko and Christian Horner giving their opinions on his weekend.
The Japanese driver was running ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton before running wide at Turn 12, losing second place as the rain fell, 45 laps into the race. Before the chaos unfolded, he was in P6 for most of the Grand Prix and driving very well.
Tsunoda drove superbly over the weekend to qualify in fifth place before keeping out of trouble in the Grand Prix as his Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar crashed on the formation lap.
He made one small error at Turn 12 to let Hamilton through before Racing Bulls missed the window slightly when there was too little grip for slicks and they needed to pit.
Marko believes its a “matter of consistency” for Tsunoda to perform well in China
Tsunoda’s drive at Albert Park was encouraging. He kept a cool head while drivers with varying levels of experience hit the wall and retired.
Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoleto retired, while two-time world champion Fernando Alonso failed to finish after spinning at Turn 6.
Red Bull advisor Dr Marko was pleased with the performance of Tsunoda over the F1 Australian GP weekend despite failing to finish in the points.
He said in his post-race media session: “His performance was good, no mistakes. No mistakes, it was a great weekend. Unfortunately, there was a mishap in the box, which cost him his well-defended spot in P6.”
He added that the Racing Bulls driver needs to be consistent heading into China: “It’s a matter of consistency. But that’s where we are now. It was an impeccable performance.”
Christian Horner feels Yuki Tsunoda “drove a very good race”
Tsunoda is now a much more complete Formula 1 driver who has stopped making costly errors that plagued his early career in 2021.
Despite his improvement, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner overlooked him when searching for Sergio Perez’s replacement at the Austrian team.
Horner feels Tsunoda drove well in the F1 Australian GP, although he admitted Racing Bulls weren’t at the forefront of his mind.
“I thought Yuki again drove a very good race today. I didn’t follow closely their decision-making for going from slicks to inters. It looked like they perhaps missed the window with that.
“I looked up at one point and he was ahead of Charles Leclerc and driving very well. They’ve had a well-balanced car obviously this weekend. I’m sure they’ll be hoping for that to continue in China next weekend.”
Due to the Shanghai International Circuit only returning to the calendar last year for the first time since 2019, Tsunoda has only raced there once.
The 24-year-old endured a tricky weekend last year as he failed to finish the Grand Prix and floundered behind his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the Sprint.
