"It's hard to say yet" - Yuki Tsunoda remains non-committal on how RB could behave this season

Yuki Tsunoda believes RB could have a car that suits the majority of the circuits in the 2024 season. Speaking to media including Sportskeeda ahead of the 2024 Bahrain GP, the Japanese driver believes the VCARB01 has the potential to become a consistent part of the midfield.

While many think the VCARB01 could have elements of the RB19, Daniel Ricciardo downplayed the idea as he spoke to Sportskeeda. Yuki Tsunoda felt their car had improved in many areas but it was difficult to analyse if it suited most on the calendar. He felt that the Bahrain circuit was very specific and could be misleading in terms of its potential. The 22-year-old hopes their car is consistently in the final session of qualifying and guarantees its potential to be in Q2.

Asked by Sportskeeda if they had a car that suited all circuits, Yuki Tsunoda said:

“It's hard to say because we just drove in Bahrain and Bahrain is a very, very specific track. I would say compared to others, especially long runs, normally it's really limited and the track surface is much rougher than other tracks. It's hard to say yet.

"But yeah, I would say it's the most of the tracks probably. We need to see how the city circuit is, really hard to say because it got stiffer which means slightly difficult probably. But I'm sure there are lots of improvements while we go from last day, will cover that kind of balance, I would say so see how it goes.”

Asked if their car had the potential to consistently be in the final session of qualifying, he said:

“Q2, I'm looking forward to that for Q2. I'm feeling strong for that Q3, it's hard to say to be honest. It's just everyone using different compounds. But balance itself at least didn't feel like too bad. So yeah, maybe yeah.”

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Yuki Tsunoda reckons RB have top 10 car for the 2024 season

Explaining his expectations of the car, Yuki Tsunoda suggested that they could have a top 10 car. Claiming that the VCARB-01 was not a brand new car, the 22-year-old suggested it was only an evolution of the previous years' AlphaTauri AT03. The Japanese driver believes that their car could have the potential to clinch positions between P5 and P10 on the grid.

Asked if they had a top 10 car on the grid, Yuki Tsunoda replied:

“Yeah, first of all, obviously, it's not the car like top three cars. But at the same time, we're not in a probably, hopefully not in the last two cars, I would say. But yeah, we're not expecting too high still, to be honest, because the car is not that huge difference."

"I mean there's a bit of bits and bobs but it's the kind of extension of the Abu Dhabi upgrade as with that what we did so. But since so far there's no huge limitation from the car or balance limitation and although wind sensitivity also seems okay so it's not the car that we will fight probably like the last of P9 but hopefully like around P8, P7, yeah but really it's hard to say.”

While Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo have consistently downplayed the potential of their car, their rivals think likewise. RB’s close relationship with Red Bull Racing has been one of the reasons that have made other teams believe they could have the potential to be in the top 5 consistently. The Australian driver was fifth fastest in two out of three days of the preseason test and is expected to be the top runner for the team.