F1
In 2024, Tsunoda gave himself a score of 8/10: "It's definitely one of my best seasons"
© Xavi Bonilla / DPPI
Yuki tsunoda had a strange 2024. The Japanese had perhaps his most successful season since his arrival in Formula 1, in 2021: 12th in the Drivers' Championship, his best ranking in the last four seasons, he dominated his two teammates of the year, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson, on direct confrontations in qualifying, in the race and in the number of points. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, the 25-year-old driver was not promoted by Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez in 2025. To support Max Verstappen, the Austrian team preferred to trust Liam Lawson despite his relative inexperience of 11 Grands Prix in Formula 1.
Inevitably, despite a successful season on a personal and sporting level, the conclusion of this year 2024 is slightly bitter for Yuki Tsunoda. However, the Japanese considers that he did what was necessary to show Red Bull his true value. When asked, after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, what mark he would give himself out of ten for his performance in 2024, he answers : "I would say eight. There were a few races where I could have done better. Compared to the last four years, this is definitely one of my best."
"I score more than half of the points for the team, I am able to show good consistency and I regularly surpass my teammates, he recalls, highlighting his progress as a team leader at Racing Bulls. I hope they will trust me a little bit more. I give a lot of information to the team to improve the car and we have had a lot of races where we have been able to improve. In those areas in particular I have progressed well.
Tsunoda 'can be proud' of his progress, says Mekies
Progress that has impressed Laurent Mekies. The Racing Bulls team principal praised the Japanese driver's "exceptional" efforts during the season, despite inconsistent performances for the team. Faenza. “If you look at the driver’s performance, it has followed very closely the team’s performance throughout the year. We had a slow start, a fantastic run of races and then a more difficult period where we had some development issues.”, recognizes the French leader.
“Eventually we managed to get the car back in the right window for the last part of the season, and the drivers’ results followed. But when I see Yuki performing at this level again, as he has in the last few races, I think it’s been an exceptional season on his side, estimates Laurent Mekies. I think he's taken a step forward this season that no one could have predicted and that's something he can be proud of." In 2025, Yuki Tsunoda will therefore stay one more year at Faenza and will become the most experienced driver in the team since the takeover of Minardi in 2005. Before taking his own flight in 2026?
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Dorian Grangier
A young journalist nostalgic for the motorsport of yesteryear. Raised on the exploits of Sébastien Loeb and Fernando Alonso.
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eric stevens
26/12/2024 at 07:44 a.m.
going fast in f1 is necessary but not enough. not enough control of him, little aura, no flash of brilliance, it's average, better and better. others, who didn't have honda and japan in their luggage, would not have done better, nor worse. we will quickly forget him
Yves-Henri RANDIER
25/12/2024 at 12:50 a.m.
He gives himself 8/10 and claims that this 4th season is the best of his career. Yes, most certainly ... but he does not appear in the 10 top 2024 defined by the drivers and remains too eruptive in his seat imposed by Honda. 4 years in the second division, with Honda as a mentor, allowed him to progress and not be released during his first 2 seasons. He will go and discover new horizons in 2026 but I doubt that Papa Stroll will hire him of his own free will instead of the only CDI on the grid ... unless Honda demands it in view of the 2025 performances of Tsunoda and Stroll!
vincent moyet
25/12/2024 at 12:28 a.m.
Tsunoda is an illustration of the incomprehensible policy of RB management: an experienced driver who has demonstrated high-level performances, but whom management shuns because he is imposed by Honda, and which it has even clearly announced to put out at the end of 2025, to prefer inexperienced drivers just for the pleasure of crushing them and throwing them out. One wonders what the Horner-Marko duo are playing at, who act against their own camp and condemn him to the constructors' championship with this sadistic game.