In Friday's qualifying session, he precisely delivered on his quest.
Tsunoda's journey into Q3 landed him in an impressive P9, securing a starting position alongside Lance Stroll of Aston Martin. Despite recent criticism stemming from a contentious incident during the Bahrain Grand Prix, where he hesitated to comply with team orders, Tsunoda couldn't hide his joy at the outcome.
“We did it! I’m very happy today,” exclaimed Tsunoda in the post-qualifying media report from Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.
“The team did a fantastic job of giving me a nice car, and I enjoyed it, so a huge thanks to everyone,” added Tsunoda. “We were expecting it to be difficult, but I focused on myself to extract as much performance from the car as possible, and I’m pleased I was able to put it all together. It’s the first Q3 of the year and it’s given us extra confidence for the future. I enjoyed today a lot, but tomorrow won’t be easy, so we now focus on the race. We have a lot of experienced people, and I’m confident we can maximise our package and score some points.”
In contrast, the day proved to be a tad frustrating for Ricciardo in the garage next door. Although the seasoned driver pushed through to Q2, his journey concluded there, leaving him with an unfulfilled Friday.
Ricciardo secures the 14th position on the starting grid for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“It was a very frustrating qualifying. Compared to Bahrain, where I was more frustrated with myself because I knew there was more time on the table, today was a little bit more of a mystery. I know where the time was, but I don’t know how we could’ve got it in that session. I was confident going into qualifying, and I was feeling quite good in the car, but on the second run, I made a mistake,” described Ricciardo. “Nonetheless, we were still in the fight. Once in Q2, everyone was improving their lap time, but I felt like I couldn’t get any more out of what I had, and we just plateaued. It wasn’t a matter of understeer or oversteer, but more that I didn’t have the grip compared to the others.”
However, Ricciardo commended his teammate's performance before shifting his focus to tomorrow's race.
“Well done to Yuki, he did a great job! Thinking of tomorrow, I have a few areas in mind to analyse, so we’ll look into them and hopefully, we’ll find more performance for the race,” added Ricciardo.
Guillaume Dezoteux, VCARB's Head of Vehicle Performance, commended the performance of both drivers.
“The qualifying session went very well for Yuki, who managed to get to Q3 and secure P9 ahead of Stroll. The car felt consistent during the entire session, and our plan of focusing on single laps, getting good traffic windows and adapting the balance to the track evolution worked very well,” said Dezoteux.
Now, the team shifts its focus to the grand prix itself, strategizing on how to translate a solid Friday performance into valuable points.
“Tonight, we will work on the strategy simulations to define the most likely scenarios for the race,” added Dezoteux.
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