Yuki Tsunoda says Visa Cash App RB needs to be on pace since FP1 to beat rivals as he and Liam Lawson reflect on opposites in F1 Las Vegas GP for them.
It did not start well for the pair of Visa Cash App RB drivers in F1 Las Vegas GP. They brought updates which they were optimisting and it set them back a bit. Gradually, they started to show pace and in qualifying, Tsunoda made it in the Top 10, while Lawson missed out due to his own mistake.
Tsunoda more or less had a solid outing to end up ninth. He held eighth for most part but Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg managed to pass him which helped the American outfit to move back into sixth. They now have four points advantage over Visa Cash App RB, who are three behind Alpine.
While he scored the points, but Tsunoda wants the team to be on it from FP1 onward to make the most of a weekend. He expects Qatar to be difficult for them but hopes they can salvage points in the bid to at least pass Alpine in the standings to close in on Haas.
“It was a pretty tough race I would say,” said Tsunoda. “I think as a team, we made such a good step throughout the race week, but compared to Haas and Alpine, we were still missing couple of tenths. I think still scoring points was good, especially I also made minimum damage in the end, finishing ahead of Pierre. For me, I did the maximum I can.
“We have to be more spot-on from FP1. In Las Vegas, we were able to fight almost like the last moment to make the car better. Ideally, we want to have a better car from FP1 to build confidence. Those things will definitely will affect last milliseconds and this car feels very tight in qualifying, so we got to be more spot-on. From my side, I feel really confident going to Qatar.
“It will be a tight field but yeah, we should be there. Pierre had a DNF which helped us. He showed good pace in Brazil too. It was just the fight between us and Haas but now Alpine are in the mix as well and in Qatar, it will be one of the toughest tracks for us, we didn’t do well in 2023. We definitely need to prepare well. Qatar will be a big mountain for us to climb,” summed up Tsunoda.
His teammate Lawson had a fighting start against Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. It continued for most part which included a move by Sergio Perez, who cleared them both at one point after taking the inside line at Turn 14, with the Kiwi in the middle and the Dane on the outside.
Lawson tried a one stop strategy which didn’t work and traffic killed his momentum. He was eventually forced to stop twice which ended his chance to score points. “That sucked, it was really-really tough,” he said. “We started okay, the first stint was okay but then the second stint, we ended up in traffic. Everyone was struggling with graining, we did struggle and there was a period where we realised that we were really fighting for points.
“We tried to extend and potentially do one stop but by extending we lost lot of time, that’s why we boxed again. It was tricky. Yuki’s done well to score points, we need to make the most of the next two races now. Regarding the contact, I didn’t really feel anything. It was too early in the race to feel anything, the car is heavy, but we will look into it.
“But we definitely had our own share of issues in Las Vegas through qualifying and the race. It was similar issues, that cost us quite a lot, so we will look into it and hopefully we will be better in Qatar. It is just braking and overall grip, front and rear locking, just struggling to maximise. It was obviously very slippery and hard to push to the limit on the track like this, but yeah we struggled all-through this weekend,” summed up Lawson.
Joining Lawson in the no points list were the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly along with Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Among them, three saw the chequered flag but had troubles to drop down the order, one suffered a DNF and one missed on points by just.
Having qualified third, Gasly would have lost places but could have fought against the likes of Tsunoda and Hulkenberg for points in a crucial P6 tussle against Haas and Visa Cash App RB. But he forced to retire, whereas his teammate had a bizarre radio situation which resulted in an extra pit stop.
He was asked by his engineer to do opposite of Hulkenberg. He did so but there were no mechanics in his box. That forced him to go around again and therefore lost the chance to fight for points. The bizarre happening didn’t just stop with the Frenchman, the Canadian faced something similar.
Due to a broken radio, Stroll’s message to pit did get through the team. When he arrived at his box, they had to hurry up during the first stop, thus costing time and ruining his grand prix. Post the mistake, they relied on the pit board and could execute the pit stop well in that period.
Despite the pit gaffe, points were not on the cards for Stroll. The estimation was to finish 12th on the road behind teammate Fernando Alonso. Aston Martin, though, did surprised with a result nearer to points, even though they don’t have the car to succeed.
Ocon: “I think I want to review first exactly what happens [before speaking]. I think it’s a difficult situation at the time, trying to box opposite. But we eventually did a drive through for nothing because we didn’t change tyres and that cost us our race, because then we would have tried to hang on for that one stop until the end. I think, before that, we were going to be on for points for sure, able to fight for it.
“And then we desperately tried to hang out for that one stop and it didn’t work out at the end, but I think it would have clearly been a different race if we managed that phase of the race properly. But we didn’t maximise, the others did. We know how tight it’s going to be until the end of the year and we need to do a better job in the next two races to have a chance of getting the others with the constructors’ championship.”
Stroll: “Difficult race, no radio from lap one. No communication. That made it difficult with the pitstop and trying to tell them that I was coming with the pit confirm. But the message didn’t go through. I lost 20 seconds – a lot. It’s the same in the car. There’s no problem from the car, it’s just the strategy and the pitstops. I knew that the medium tyre was dying a lot at the beginning of the race and I wanted to come in and go as quickly as possible on the hard tyre.
“But then our plan was to go longer on the medium tyre before the race, but the medium was worse than we expected, so I was trying to communicate that and tell them that I was coming in earlier. But then it was kind of impossible to communicate other than the pit confirm. So, just one of those races. Anyways, I would have finished P12, maybe a few [extra] positions, because we lost 20 seconds and we finished 10 seconds behind the two drivers in front of us. So, a couple of positions there, but no points on the table.”
Here’s Liam Lawson losing out: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-las-vegas-grand-prix-perez-pulls-off-brilliant-double-overtake-to-take-two-cars-in-one-corner.1816587664485120540
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on move on Liam Lawson
Here’s how F1 Las Vegas GP panned out
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