After RB out-qualified Aston Martin for the second week in a row, Yuki Tsunoda outlined that the Faenza-based Formula 1 outfit’s intention is to out-develop its Silverstone-based rivals.
Aston Martin had a Saturday to forget in Monaco, Fernando Alonso was a shock exit in Q1 and Lance Stroll finished second-last in Q2.
Tsunoda meanwhile was able to make Q3 with yet another impressive qualifying performance whilst Daniel Ricciardo finished one place ahead of Stroll in 13th.
Both RBs also made Q3 at Imola as Aston Martin struggled despite bringing an extensive array of upgrades and it looks like Tsunoda’s team is reining in ‘Team Silverstone.’
“I think Aston Martin are the main competitors that we have to fight and I think actually they were pretty good in FP3, so I don’t know what happened there,” Tsunoda said after Saturday’s Monaco qualifying.
Indeed, Aston Martin’s pace seemingly deserted the team in qualifying after Alonso was 10th and just 0.7s off the pace in FP3.
Tsunoda himself found the step up in pace from qualifying hard to grapple with having finished six tenths off in FP3 with a 1:11.991s lap-time, good enough for ninth place.
However, with the 1m10s barrier broken in Q3 on Saturday, Tsunoda had to step it up en route to claiming eighth in Qualifying.
“[Qualifying was] slightly harder than expected,” Tsunoda said.
“Competitors picked up so much pace between free practice and qualifying. So I nearly dropped out of Q1.
“Still we improved session by session so that was good from our side as a team and for myself as well.”
Aston Martin’s qualifying woe resigns the team to a likely non-points scoring finish amid Monaco’s tight and twisty streets on Sunday, with Tsunoda poised to pick up some points from his eighth-place starting birth.
The gap between RB and Aston Martin in the Constructors’ standings is tightening.
Aston sits in fifth with 44 points, 24 ahead of RB in sixth but the latter has outscored the former 13 points to four over the last two rounds.
Is the tide turning in RB’s favour then?
“I’m sure we’re not far away in terms of car pace,” said Tsunoda.
“I think we just keep developing and one point hopefully we can just comfortably always be ahead of them.”
For Aston Martin, falling behind RB in the Constructors’ would be an unmitigated disaster for a team aiming to challenge the top runners.
On the other side of the coin, if RB can elevate itself from the bottom to the top half of the table, its intention to step out of Red Bull’s shadow and be recognised as a team with its own objectives beyond being a feeder of driving talent will start being realised.
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