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Yuki Tsunoda believes that the tire strategy during the 2024 Dutch GP cost him a good result. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, after the race, the Visa Cashapp RB F1 team driver felt that the pitstops and two-stop strategy cost him places.
Despite qualifying 13th in the qualifying session ahead of the Dutch GP, Yuki Tsunoda was lucky to be promoted to 11th on the grid, as a result of Lewis Hamilton’s grid place and Alex Albon being disqualified. The Japanese driver had a poor start where he dropped two places, and poor pitstop and tire strategy further pushed him to the bottom of the grid. He eventually finished the race in 17th place.
Speaking to the onsite media after the race, Yuki Tsunoda felt that pistols and strategies were the reason the race went away from him. He felt that from the pitstop windows to the two-stop strategies, the race became a difficult one. Being stuck behind other cars in the dirty air, the RB driver was unable to match the times of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo either.
In the mid-stint, the 34-year-old driver was posting lap times that were two seconds quicker than the 22-year-old driver. The Honda protege felt that he was unable to show his true pace due to the strategy in play. He had opted for a two-stop strategy using three different tire compounds- soft, medium, and hard.
Asked by Sportskeeda about his thoughts on the race and where it went away, Yuki Tsunoda said:
“Yeah, I mean, we knew that it's going to be 50 -50 with two stops. But, yeah, I mean, even with my strategy that in the end didn't work well. The timing when we pitted, everything was completely wrong, and I was always rejoined to the track car behind in the standard year. So to be honest obviously a strategy wasn't ideal, but I was on top of it, we couldn't do anything from that. We're just everything worse. Obviously, from our side, could have better for a start using soft tire and losing position. One position wasn't obviously ideal. But after that, we're just a complete disaster, yeah.”
Asked if the tire strategy was the gamble, Yuki Tsunoda said:
“I mean in the end it wasn't okay but also wasn't worse I guess. I mean Hamilton started soft tire and he did very well with the race. I think just the the tire choice of that and you know when we pitted was always behind the cars and I was always uh yeah in the dirty air and stuck behind the traffic. So I mean um yeah I didn't I couldn't do anything and I didn't even show my show my pace everything. So yeah it was pretty tough.”
Yuki Tsunoda believes the starting performance of the Visa Cashapp RB needs improvement
Yuki Tsundoa believes the starting performance of the RB car has been a concern for many races. Both RB drivers lost two positions each at the race start. The 22-year-old driver was unsure whether the problem was on the driver's side or if it was a technical issue with the car. He reckoned his car lost performance straight after he launched it. The Japanese driver feels it is an area of the car that remains a weakness and was supposed to be tweaked during the summer break.
Describing the areas where he struggled for consistency, Yuki Tsunoda said:
“Main thing is the starts, having to really improve it, I don't know it's coming from myself or from the I don't know the system itself. But I feel a bit of kind of speed loss as soon as I launched it. I don't know it was my human issue or technical issue. But I felt something then and just lost the completely power after that. So, I mean, it's always been like this. And yeah, this time I lost a position. Most of the time I'm able to at least maintain, but fortunately with even using soft tire losing a position. So yeah, we try to improve over summer break, but so far haven't. So definitely main things to focus on.”
Since the Canadian GP, Yuki Tsunoda has had a few weekends where he has outperformed his teammate during the race. Historically, he has struggled at the conventional circuits but his qualifying performance has improved with time and remains competitive. He has scored the majority of points for his team and is twelfth in the championship with a total of 22 points. Visa Cashapp RB team is currently sixth in the constructors standings with a total of 34 points.
