Yuki Tsunoda had a mammoth task ahead of him this past Sunday after a 60-place penalty (for the use of multiple additional power unit elements) saw the Japanese driver start from the back of the grid for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix. His cause was hindered even further as his car lacked pace and he was never in a position to challenge those in front of him.
Having started from P20, Tsunoda would be classified P16 due to George Russell’s post-race disqualification. In the team’s press release, RB’s Team Principal Laurent Mekies reflected on Tsunoda’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Mekies explained how the team knew coming into the race that “our work plan would be different to usual, with Yuki having to start from the back”. By the team’s own admission “it was a near impossible mission to make it back to the points from there, and it is fair to say that we never quite managed to have a car that felt right for him this weekend.”
This point was proven in the post-race team radio between Tsunoda and his race engineer as he said “It’s so hard to drive this car”. The reply which followed saw his race engineer apologise and explain that the team “will show you something in the garage”.
The driver of RB’s car number 22 elaborated on this post-race and said that he had been struggling for pace this weekend and the issues had also continued on race day. Tsunoda’s situation had also been difficult for the team to fix as he told media “with mixed conditions it’s hard to compare” due to a variety of weather across the weekend.
“I haven’t been feeling fully comfortable and it seems there was something going on from what I heard from my engineers after the race, so we’ll sit down together and look through the data,” Tsunoda explained. “The strategy didn’t work out for us today, but we always knew it would be challenging given our starting position. We’ll keep pushing as a team and do as much as we can to maintain our position in the constructors as it remains a tight midfield.”
Having reached the summer break, RB will be hoping to continue the kind of form when racing resumes which has seen them score points at 10 out of 14 races. They are in a close battle for P6 in this year’s F1 Constructors’ Championship and it is certain to be a close battle all the way to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
At present RB hold a seven-point lead over American owned racing outfit Haas F1 Team. However, all in F1 know how quickly things can change in the pinnacle of motorsport and RB need only look across to their sister team Red Bull Racing to see how they are no longer the dominant force they once were just a few months ago.
When F1 returns there will be no let up for the teams seeing how the last 10 races spread globally come either in the form of back-to-back race weekends and even triple-headers. As a result of that, RB will need two drivers firing on all cylinders. They certainly have the talent to perform and now it is up to the team to ensure they provide a car enabling them to do so.
