Yuki Tsunoda admitted it was frustrating to miss out on the top ten with only a handful of laps to go in last Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Japanese driver fighting a losing battle against MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen.
A good first stint saw the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver rise into the top eight, but he was passed by both BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers before fighting against Magnussen in the last ten laps, the two battling almost wheel to wheel lap after lap.
Tsunoda has now finished eleventh in both of the opening races, with AlphaTauri falling behind Haas in the Constructors’ Championship, but the Japanese driver believes more pace is to come from the team in the upcoming races.
“I ended the race in P11, it’s frustrating to lose the position with only four laps to go,” said Tsunoda. “The team did a really great job, everything went perfectly.
“The pace on the medium tyre was very strong and it improved compared to qualifying. I’m happy with what the team and I achieved together, but at the same time, I’m disappointed we didn’t reach the points in the end.
“We’ll come back stronger with updates in Melbourne, so we are already fully focussed on the next race, where we will do our best to maximise our performance. We’ll continue to work hard to be able to fight at the top of the midfield and start scoring points consistently.”
“I didn’t do a good enough job today” – Nyck de Vries
Team-mate Nyck de Vries ended the race in fourteenth, with the Dutchman feeling he did not do a good enough job, particularly at the start that saw him get stuck in traffic.
In clean air, de Vries believed he had stronger pace, but he was not able to use it to good effect for much of the evening, and he was left with too much to do to bring himself into top ten contention.
“I didn’t do a good enough job today,” said de Vries. “I lost most of my momentum at the start and restart, so I got stuck in traffic. It’s difficult to regain that rhythm and make up the positions, especially when you’re caught in a DRS train.
“I didn’t attack enough and struggled to find the balance between managing the tyres well and pushing, so I was unable to get them to the right temperature. In the end, when I was in clean air chasing Zhou [Guanyu], my pace was very strong and consistent.
“Generally, it was a step up from Bahrain, so that’s a positive. We definitely need to keep going and continue to push.”
Nyck de Vries ended fourteenth in Saudi Arabia – Credit: Peter Fox/Getty Images