F1 | Racing Bulls: another top 10 in Monaco, taming the slow sections

Third consecutive Grand Prix with points, gap widened on Haas and shortened on Aston Martin. Also in Monaco Racing Bulls concluded a good weekend with a top ten signed by Yuki Tsunoda, among the top ten for the third consecutive time, fifth in the season, confirming a solidity that is leading it to position itself not only definitively as the reference of the midfield , but also to undermine Aston Martin more consistently.

The Principality track was one of those where the VCARB01 was expected to perform well, but on such a complex track for drivers you also need to know how to transform potential into concreteness. On Friday the team followed a completely different program from its rivals, using the soft in FP1, given that they were expecting rain for FP2: for this reason it didn’t shine in the afternoon in terms of lap times, but the sensations were positive.

Both last year and during this season, the cars of the Faenza team demonstrated good speed in the slower sections, especially in the final part of the 2023 world championship, when the updates arrived that gave lifeblood to the AT04, the project which then gave rise to the VBCAR01. In Monaco this aspect emerged not so much in relation to the leading cars, which remain out of reach for the moment, but rather in relation to the more direct rivals.

The confrontation began with Alpine, protagonist of a good weekend, Williams, on a track where the important weight limitations have less influence and Aston Martin, although it was not the most suitable track to bring out the qualities of the AMR24 , which makes the increasing performance in medium-high speed corners and the open DRS efficiency two strong points.

By adopting last year’s Red Bull suspension, some of the critical issues highlighted by the world champion team already last season in absorbing bumps emerged, such as in the braking sections of turn one and after the tunnel. Two sections where there are important load transfers, with the suspension also having to work to absorb the roughness of the asphalt and where, in fact, Red Bull itself has suffered again this year.

Although on the whole Racing Bulls itself lost time to the leading cars in the slow sections, the comparison is in its favor if the reference is that of the other mid-group teams. Despite not having high top speeds and still encountering some difficulties in the fastest corners, a constant theme throughout this season, the Faenza single-seater managed to build a good advantage over its direct rivals with low mileage, enough to compensate for the other areas of the track .

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Furthermore, it is interesting to note how, by specifically isolating the low traffic areas, the VCARB01 actually did not disfigure itself compared to the RB20. Although it is complex to make a direct comparison, it almost seems that the Italian car was able to afford a softer set-up, thus being able to attack the curbs more aggressively.

Thanks to eighth place on the grid, Tsunoda then managed to build a waiting race which led him to score another four points for the team. Like other riders, the Japanese also had to manage the pace by lapping with particularly high times, both to complete 76 laps on the same set of tires and to keep his rivals under control, reducing the chances that a gap could open up behind him. sufficient window to allow Albon to stop and fit fresh, higher-performance tires.

Only when the danger finally disappeared with a few laps to go was Tsunoda allowed to push, with the Japanese quickly lowering his times by around 3 seconds per lap, demonstrating how much he still had in his pocket.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Despite feeling a bit frustrated at not having been able to run a more aggressive race in terms of pace, the Racing Bulls driver said he was enthusiastic about the first points scored in Monaco in his career, which also represent a reward for the work done by the team: “It’s good to get some points again. I think we deserved these points. It was a sort of fine-tuning, finding the balance between how much I wanted to push and how much I needed to manage for the strategy. Obviously I wanted to push, but from a tactical point of view it wasn’t convenient.”

“I tried to stay as calm as possible. At the end they told me I could push, in the last two laps I had fun and the points I scored today are my first points in Monaco, so it’s certainly a happy day”, explained Tsunoda.

“It is very important to continue to score points and I believe that the team allows me to gain confidence with the car straight away in FP1 and to have a good pace from the first free practice sessions. I think these types of things help me to be confident and focused on what I need to do. I think in every race we are super consistent, that’s what we all want.”