After a disappointing 2022 season for both Scuderia AlphaTauri and Yuki Tsunoda, the young Japanese driver roared back in 2023 with his best Formula One campaign to date. Now, moving into his fourth year in the racing series with the newly named RB team, Tsunoda will be looking to place a firm hand on the wheel of the Red Bull Racing seat up for grabs moving into 2025.
2023
If nothing else, Yuki Tsunoda had a very consistent beginning to the 2023 campaign with Alpha-Tauri. Two of the first five races saw Tsunoda finish just inside the points at 10th, a very solid showing considering the dismal performances of his soon-to-be-dropped teammate, Nyck de Vries, in the same machinery. He performed competently in the other three of the five races as well, finishing just outside the points in 11th all three times. This strong start was something that AlphaTauri needed to see from the former Japanese phenom with many questioning his return to F1 in 2023 as a good move.
The second third of the season brought a run of bad results to Yuki and AlphaTauri. While other teams brought upgrades to their cars progressing their drivers through the midfield, AlphaTauri struggled. Yuki stayed in and around the midfield although he found it difficult to gain points, only doing so on one occasion in the 12 races following his run of good form at the beginning of the season. This mid-season slump coincided with lots of change within the AlphaTauri team itself which, for Yuki, most certainly did not help. Nyck de Vries’s departure meant the return of the prodigal son Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian driver drove all of three races before breaking his hand in an on-track incident, forcing him out until the final five races of the season.
As things settled down towards the end of the season with Ricciardo rejoining from injury, the team picked up their pace. Yuki was able to excel in these last five chaos-free races, securing points finishes in three of these last five and finishing in a season-high eighth in both USA and Abu Dhabi.
Season Expectations
Expectations surrounding the RB team this season remain the same as they have been the past few years, finishing 5th in the Constructor’s championship. This requires a strong season from Tsunoda who will be looking to remain in F1 past his current contract expiration at the end of the year. All things considered, this is a tough ask for a team who have struggled in the lower end of the midfield for two seasons now. They came close to this objective in Yuki’s rookie season with the team finishing in a strong sixth as their French frontman, Pierre Gasly, dazzled F1 fans with 14 finishes inside the points in 22 races.
Fans of RB and the team itself have some ground to build upon, however, as positive changes in the offseason to the back office have been reflected by their testing sessions last week. The team, sporting their new light blue livery, grabbed attention by securing fourth place on the first day of testing. Following this, they consistently maintained a position within the top five over the next two days. This sparked discussions among paddock insiders suggesting they might emerge as an unexpected contender for the upcoming year, proving this midfield achievement more possible than many previously may have thought. Yuki played a major part in these great testing sessions, finishing with the seventh-best time across all 3 days.
This solid performance from the now fourth-year driver could be the spark that RB needs to finally grab their coveted fifth-place finish. However, with the season still yet to start, all eyes will be on the Visa Cash App branded livery as the lights go out in Bahrain to see if they can reach the potential seen throughout much of testing.
