Yuki Tsunoda has opened up on the disappointment of leaving Australia without points after starting from fifth and running in sixth for the majority of the race. The Racing Bulls driver pointed to ‘very painful memories from Brazil last year’ – another rain-filled race – that may have influenced the team’s decision during the wet Australian Grand Prix.
In the latter stages of the race, other teams opted to pit for intermediates as the rain intensified. However, Tsunoda stayed out for a few more laps before pitting – a move that ended up putting him outside of the points.
When asked ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend if he and the Racing Bulls team reviewed the decisions taken in Australia, the Japanese driver explained:
“Yeah, we understood everything and it’s obviously a bit of a gamble. And at the same time, probably we had very painful memories from Brazil last year that we didn’t stay out [in the rain]. So definitely, maybe that was creating a bit of a difficult decision to us.
“It was quite a clear situation that we should box and at the same time, it was hard for myself as well to monitor every single corner because every lap kept changing. The lap before sector one was not raining, but in the lap after it would be raining and we reacted to late.
“I don’t think I made a mistake, to be honest, in terms of communications and everything. I’m pretty happy with it. Just it didn’t go the way we wanted, you know.
“Even the safety car as well, the safety car came in, came out for a lap after when I pitted it was actually not bad. I didn’t lose as much as I did.
Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
“We know what happened, and the team definitely apologised to me right after the race. So that’s the most important thing, and move on.”
Tsunoda now looks ahead to the Chinese Grand Prix, where he’ll be relieved to be racing in dry conditions.
