2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix Highlights

Further down the field, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team’s Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo battled hard in the middle of the pack but finished outside the points in 14th and 16th places, respectively, at the 2024 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo

After last night, I let go of the frustration and put it aside coming into the race. I tried to get the most out of today, and there were some excellent stints. Many drivers pitted early like me, but starting from the back of the grid, we had to try something. I think in the first stint on the complex compound, I lost a little bit of time as the graining came up pretty soon with the VSC, but the second one was definitely more competitive. I could drive on a low 1:21 as a lap time before we got some blue flags, so there were indeed some excellent and encouraging moments throughout the race. Nevertheless, I think we’re still missing some things, as sometimes I feel like I’m not carrying enough speed in some corners. During the race, I marked some points that are good for gathering data and will help us continue understanding our car. Obviously, I would have loved to have a better weekend and start the season, especially after the preparation I had coming into it. However, there’s no panic; we continue to keep our eyes on the prize and work together. I feel like the car itself has not really changed from last year, it’s an update but the characteristics are very similar. There’s some confidence in that, and I don’t think we have to change everything, so we’ll find something in one of the following weekends to continue the positive performance trend.

Yuki Tsunoda

Finally, a top-ten finish, the team definitely deserves it, and I’m very happy! We were consistent throughout this weekend, and the car felt good straight away, so we just had to put it all together and have a clean race to score points in this tight midfield, and we achieved that today. We didn’t make any mistakes, and it’s vital for the team and me to have that confidence to go into the next races. To have a clean race sounds easy, but the last two races have been frustrating for us, so finishing P8 today, after a productive restructuring, was definitely deserved. The team did a fantastic job, and I can see the team is significantly improving every race. The difference in the car between the same time in Melbourne last year and this year is impressive. The amount of work we put into that car was massive, and the work definitely paid off. To be honest, the race wasn’t easy because other teams actually picked up their pace quite a bit, but I’m delighted we could maximise our performance and opportunity, and glad to hear that George is okay in the end. The whole weekend is a great way to go into Japan, especially with this result under my belt, and at least I can give some hope to the Japanese fans. I haven’t scored any F1 points at my home Grand Prix, but the car looks good, so let’s try again this year. I’ve been resetting myself every week, and our car has been very consistent, which is different compared to last year, so that’s a strength. I learn from previous races and focus on what I can do better to help the team. Now it’s time for us to analyse, reset and push again in Japan!

Laurent Mekies – Team Principal

It’s a very positive result for us today. Yuki executed a fast and well-controlled race to top the whole midfield group and got us our first points of the season. He did not put a foot wrong all weekend, and with calm and determination got faster session after session. Daniel’s pace was also strong, and we can only regret that we had to start from the back. He fought his way back to P12, and there were undoubtedly points available today for him as well, had he started from a better position. The team performed very well all weekend, and it was only by getting a near-perfect weekend that we could score points here, given how tight the mid-field is. So, a big well done to everyone in Faenza, Bicester, and Honda. We go to Japan with some good encouragement from the Australian round here, and we are very conscious of how hard we will need to push there to get a very tiny edge onto the midfield again.

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