First points for Racing Bulls
An eighth place then even became a seventh due to the penalty given to Fernando Alonso: the Racing Bulls missed the appointment with the points zone in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but in Australia Yuki Tsunoda he took the 'credit' with interest compared to the previous weekends by being the best behind the Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin drivers. The six points scored at Albert Park give great oxygen to the team led by Laurent Mekies who is now sixth in the Constructors' standings ahead of the solid Haas who have scored other important points.
Yuki Tsunoda commented on a finally positive Sunday: “Finally a top 10 finish, the team deserves it and I'm very happy. We were very consistent throughout the weekend and the car immediately behaved well; so, we just had to put everything together and have a clean race to score points and we managed to do that. We didn't make any mistakes and it's important, both for the team and for me, to have this confidence for the next races. Having a clean race may seem easy, but the last two events have been frustrating for us, so crossing the finish line in eighth place today following the winter revolution within the team was definitely a deserved result. The team has done a fantastic job, we are improving significantly with each race. The difference in the car between the current car and last year's Melbourne car is impressive. The amount of work was enormous, but it paid off. To be honest, the race wasn't easy because the other teams improved their pace, but I'm very happy that we managed to maximize our performances and our opportunities, and above all I'm happy to know that George is okay in the end. This result is excellent to give enthusiasm to the Japanese fans in view of the next race. I haven't scored any points in Suzuka yet, but the car looks good, so we'll try this year. The car is consistent and is different from last year, this is one of our strong pointsto”.
For a beaming Tsunoda there is a Daniel Ricciardo disappointed and even already at risk of replacement. The Australian driver analyzed his race like this: “Both myself and many other riders stopped early but, starting from the back of the grid, we had to try something different. I think in the first stint with the hard compound I lost a bit of time because the graining showed up very early with the VSC, but the second stint was definitely more competitive. I managed a 1:21 lap before getting the blue flags, so there were positive and encouraging moments throughout the race. However, I think we are still missing something, because sometimes I feel like I don't have enough speed in some corners. During the race, I reported some things that will be useful for collecting data that will help us better understand our car. Obviously, I would have liked to have had a better weekend and start to the season. But don't panic, let's keep our eyes on the goal and work together. I feel like the car hasn't changed much from last year, it's been updated but the features are very similar. There is confidence in the project and we don't have to change everything; we will find something in one of the next weekends to continue this positive performance trend“.
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