F1 | Tsunoda: “The VCARB01 is different, you can tell by which gears we use”

Only a year ago, Racing Bulls was fighting to avoid the back rows with a car that offered very little satisfaction due to some obvious aerodynamic and mechanical limitations. However, after a subdued start, the Faenza team worked hard to turn the situation around, identifying the weak points that needed more interventions.

During the season, various packages of technical innovations then arrived and, in particular with those from the United States and Singapore, where the rear suspension of the RB19 also made its debut, the car was able to take a considerable step forward, coming to fight with greater consistency for the points area.

From that car, which was eventually able to recover from last to eighth place in the constructors' championship, the VCARB01 was born, the single-seater that opened a new cycle for the Italian team. Although there are clear differences on a technical level, especially because the team has strengthened the technical bond with Red Bull, the new single-seater has several aspects in common with the car from last championship. Precisely for this reason it is difficult to talk about a total revolution, but it would be more sensible to see it as a sort of advanced evolution that has convinced the pilots.

The team's objective was to get as close as possible to the top 10 but, with five reference teams ahead, the points scoring mission became particularly complex. To achieve this, it is necessary to exploit the problems of the opponents, the favorable situations or the particularly friendly tracks, as we saw in Melbourne. In Australia the Racing Bulls did well, managing not only to achieve a good Q3 thanks to an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, but also to bring home a precious seventh place which, although facilitated by the retirements of its opponents, allowed it to gain important points from an iridescent perspective.

“The pace is certainly very good. But the last two races [Bahrain e Arabia Saudita] they were very frustrating because a couple of things happened. I think there were opportunities to score and we missed them. We knew that we just needed a clean race without incidents and in Australia we managed that, without making any mistakes,” explained the Japanese rider as he recounted the start of the season.

In Jeddah, in fact, the Japanese driver was in full battle to conquer the last place in the points, but a heated battle with Kevin Magnussen then pushed him away from tenth place, which ended up in the hands of Nico Hulkenberg and Haas. In Australia, however, Tsunoda was able to achieve a good qualifying, staying out of trouble until the finish line.

“These are very important points for me and also for the team and they give us confidence for the next races. I think that, especially after changing the identity of the team, finally having a clean race seems easy, but it wasn't for us. Behind the scenes there have been a lot of changes, as with the operations in the factory and on the track and everything in between. So, yes, the improvement was definitely positive, we made progress race by race,” added Yuki, who then underlined the car's improvements compared to 2023, also mentioning a particularly interesting speech.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“It's really impressive how our car behaves very differently compared to last year, for example in a couple of corners we are using an extra gear compared to last season's car,” said Tsunoda.

In fact, observing the telemetry references of the qualifying laps of the first three events, one can notice how compared to a year ago the performance in certain types of corners has clearly improved, so much so that tackling them in a higher gear. For example, taking the first race in Bahrain as a reference, one can appreciate how the most tangible improvements came especially in the medium-high speed corners, such as the six-seven direction change, where it is useful to have a stable platform. At this specific point on the track, Tsunoda managed to tackle the stretch with a difference that in certain phases even reached 15 km/h. Furthermore, if last year the Japanese was forced to use fifth gear, helping to slide the rear slightly, this season he has been able to use sixth like many other riders.

Moving to Saudi Arabia, the comparison focuses mainly on the first sector and, also in this case, the most tangible improvements can be found in the medium-high speed corners. In turn 4, for example, Tsunoda is able to increase speed by up to 11 km/h, while in the following section, consisting of the rapid sequence in which it is essential to be able to count on good stability, this year the Japanese was able take advantage of a higher gear.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / Motorsport Images

Finally, the last stop is Australia, which however was influenced by Pirelli's choice to use softer compounds. This year the teams were in fact able to use the C5 which, although it guarantees greater grip, also proves to be a very sensitive compound throughout the entire lap: the risk was to overheat it, finding itself with little grip in the final part of the lap. tour.

Clearly the greater grip has positively influenced the telemetric references but, in any case, the data shows a clear step forward compared to the past. In turn 1 there was an improvement of 16 km/h with a higher gear, then repeated with the same methods also in turn 6, another medium-high speed section. In turn 12 the progress was more limited, estimated at 6 km/h, but even in that case there was the possibility of using higher gears.

“We know that last year, especially in the first half of the season, we struggled a lot. I believe that the work done to improve our car and the amount of updates we made in the second half of last championship, like almost every race, have certainly paid off for the hard work done. The result achieved by our team is truly impressive. Without Franz's push [Tosto] we could not have achieved this result. So, definitely, there is still some influence from Franz,” he then added, recalling how important the former Team Principal was in the push to speed up the update program.