Visa Cash App RB The 2024 F1 season has had a decidedly cold start for the F1 team. Despite showing promise at the start of the week leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo topping the timesheets in FP1, the team finished outside the points in Saturday’s Grand Prix. Not only that, but the day ended with the two drivers having a small altercation on the radio and on the track after the checkered flag flew.
The team is now aiming to ‘turn the page’ as the grid prepares to head to Jeddah for next weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The frustration stems from a series of team orders late in the race. Tsunoda was running in 13th place on hard tires, and Ricciardo was behind him in 14th place on soft tires, so Tsunoda was ordered to let Ricardo pass. Perhaps the team was hoping that the Australian driver could corner Kevin Magnussen in 12th and maybe even snatch some points if he could do something special.
However, Tsunoda initially had doubts about this request and did not let Ricardo through immediately. Although he eventually agreed to the request, he continued to question the order as Ricardo failed to corner Magnussen.
After the checkered flag, Tsunoda made one last overtake of the race and overtook Ricciardo himself, leaving the two almost tied. At the time, Ricciardo aired his own frustrations over the team radio.
The team is currently trying to overcome this incident.
“I didn’t do enough to score points today. I struggled quite a bit in the beginning of the race with used software. [tires] This is because the grip on the line was quite poor. In the middle stint on the hard tires, I picked up the pace a bit, but I felt like I was still struggling. In the end, the new soft compound was much better,” Ricciardo said in the team’s post-race report.
Ricciardo also reiterated, as he did to the media after the race, that team orders were discussed within the team before the race.
“I finally picked up the pace and caught up with the group. At that point I got stuck a little behind another car and lost grip. [tires]. “The request for a driver change was quite expected and was not surprising,” Ricciardo added. “Before the race we obviously discussed the strategic plan with the team and it was likely that we would finish the race with a new set of softs.” [tires] After starting the race with a used set. That’s right. So let’s turn the page. I know what I can do to get better, so I’m confident going into next week’s race in Jeddah. ”
Meanwhile, Mr. Tsunoda focused on the future.
“Up until about the middle of the race, I think I was doing pretty well, within the points, but I felt like the race was slowly slipping away.At that time, I wasn’t competing for points, so I looked at the post-race analysis. We have to review everything and learn from it for the future. It’s race 1 so we still have a lot of time to understand,” said Tsunoda. “Overall, there’s still a lot to take from this weekend. The mechanics did a great job at all the pit stops. If there’s anything we can improve more strategically, we’ll review it for Saudi. I’m going to improve.”
The new team’s new team principal, Laurent Mequise, mentioned team orders in his post-race comments.
“Overall, it was a tough Saturday with the middle section being tighter than ever before. The fight for 11th place was a fierce battle, involving at times eight cars! In the early stages of the race, Yuuki ran well up to 10th place. “As the race progressed we lost several positions and had a hard time passing our competitors in the final stages of the race,” Mekies said. “For the last stint we put Daniel on new soft tires and changed cars to give him a chance to pass Kevin. [Magnussen] and Zhou [Guanyu] But in the end it wasn’t enough and they had to settle for 13th and 14th place. ”
Like Tsunoda, Mekies also looked to the future.
“I know this is only race one, but I will definitely review how I could have gotten more out of today’s car and pace. “My first weekend as a Visa Cash App RB has more positives than negatives.” There are more and everyone is working hard at Faenza and Bicester,” Mekies added. “If we can shave off even a hundredth of a second in the middle, it will make a big difference.”
