Yuki Tsunoda is taking one point in F1 Australian GP even though at one point he could have been in the Top 5 without the red flag.
Having finished 11th twice in the opening two races in F1 2023 season, AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda was starring at another one in Australian GP but for the penalty to Carlos Sainz which aided the Japanese driver to eventually end up 10th and pick up a point.
It has been a much better run for Tsunoda in 2023 as opposed to his first two F1 seasons, but to his unfortunate situation, he hasn’t got the points to show for it. Part of it is also due to the lack of pace from the AlphaTauri machine against their immediate rivals.
It is a competitive but not enough for a comfortable Top 10. In Australia, with the starts and re-starts, Tsunoda found himself in fifth at one point when the grand prix was red-flagged but as the grid re-jigged, he was 11th eventually.
“I mean, without the red flag I score points in P5,” said Tsunoda. “These things happened behind myself after I passed Pierre, so even without the incident I was having a P5. So it mega sucked after the red flag, a mega shame; I’ve been frustrated to end up P10. The incidents happened behind myself because I had pretty much a mega start and into Turn 1 I overtook six cars or something like that, so even without incidents I was able to finish P6 or P5.
“Still, the first score, first time in the points this season so we should take that, especially considering where we started. Considering how much we were struggling before the red flag, with warming up and getting the hard compound tyres in the optimum window, we should take this result and be happy with P10 as we maximised our performance,” summed up Tsunoda, who reckons the straight-line speed is horrible for them.
He has fears of it being bad for the next round in Azerbaijan too. “It will be crazy when we go to Baku because in Australia I just had a massive drag on the straight, and straight-line speed was horrible,” continued Tsunoda. “So in Baku we need at least no wing or something like that to maximise straight-line speed.”
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