Tsunoda Confident RB Will 'Perform Well At Suzuka And Other Tracks'

Sunday, 31 March 2024 at 16:30

Yuki Tsunoda discussed RB's and his own performance following the third race of the 2024 season, saying he felt "people are looking" at him "more than in the last three years."

The Japanese F1 driver scored the first (and he will hope not last) six points of the season for RB during the 2024 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Circuit.

Tsunoda started the race from P8 after an amazing qualifying session and then went on to cross the finish line in the same position. However, he gained one more place after the race following Alonso's 20-second penalty.

The six points that he scored moved RB into P6 in the Championship. Speaking about his performance after the race weekend, Tsunoda told the media:

"As for myself, I just keep proving [with] my performance not just the talking, it's my style – just showing the result and just proving to the people."

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"I’m happy I’m able to show my performance and people are looking at me more than in the last three years so yeah, this is a good sign."

Red Bull boss Helmut Marko also confirmed that Tsunoda is being noticed in the driver market after what he showed during the first three races of the season.

The Championship is now split into two groups: the top five and the bottom five teams. RB belongs in the bottom five, for which it is incredibly challenging to achieve points, but the 23-year-old hopes his team can step up soon and challenge teams from the top five like Mercedes and Aston Martin.

"Just keep improving what I'm doing, and with Daniel [Ricciardo], still just working really, really well, and hopefully, we can make the car fast and fight against Aston Martin, Mercedes – those cars."

There is an interesting contrast in the Italy-based team at the moment. On the one hand, there is Daniel Ricciardo, who struggles with the car that doesn't seem to suit him.

On the other hand, the Japanese driver says he feels confident in the car, which has performed consistently for him ever since the first race of the season. He said:

"I'm feeling pretty confident because the car is performing consistently since Bahrain. We were kind of lacking performance lats year, some of the tracks were kind of disasters but so far this season we didn't have it, we just consistently perform well so I'm sure we'll perform well in Suzuka and other tracks as well."