One of the key figures of the Australian weekend was Yuki Tsunoda, who put together an extremely solid performance but ended up without points. A paradox, considering his strong race and the impressive showing from Racing Bulls in a weekend where the Faenza-based team arrived with different expectations.
Testing had provided mixed signals: on one hand, there was confidence in the progress made compared to last year’s car, but on the other, there was also an awareness that further work was needed.
However, as always, the final verdict comes from the track, and Saturday’s results were encouraging, with Tsunoda managing to outqualify both Ferrari drivers. Although the Japanese driver lost position to Charles Leclerc at the start, the first part of his race was straightforward, as he built a safe gap to Alex Albon behind him.
Holding sixth place until that point was an excellent result, marking him as the king of the midfield. But the arrival of rain with less than 15 laps to go completely changed the complexion of Tsunoda’s race. All teams were expecting a heavy downpour that would likely necessitate switching to intermediate tires.
The first drops appeared on lap 43 and intensified in sector three on the following lap. Drivers immediately began struggling to stay on track, with both McLaren cars going off into the gravel at the exit of Turn 12, while Leclerc spun. Tsunoda quickly capitalized on the chaos, gaining a position and moving up to fifth place.
However, this was the turning point in his race. Like other teams, Racing Bulls had assessed the impact of the rain and called Tsunoda into the pits. The call was the right one—except that it came just after he had passed the pit entry, making a stop impossible.
The delay was just a few seconds, but it was enough to completely change the Faenza team’s race, which had been successfully defending a valuable position until that moment. At this point, one might ask: why not pit on the following lap?
Similar to Ferrari, Racing Bulls noticed that the first two sectors of the track remained dry, meaning staying out could have been a winning gamble—especially since all teams expected the rain to be brief. In fact, although the team initially considered pitting Yuki Tsunoda on lap 45, once they saw their rivals’ lap times, they changed their approach, opting to wait and stay out.
At that point, alongside the two Ferrari drivers, Max Verstappen, and Pierre Gasly, Tsunoda was among the few still on slick tires, while the rest of the field had already switched to intermediates. While Red Bull called Verstappen in to avoid losing track position to George Russell, both Racing Bulls and Ferrari decided to continue.
Analyzing the team radios from both teams, neither expected conditions to worsen further. What Racing Bulls and Ferrari couldn’t predict—since they lacked reference points from other drivers—was that the downpour had spread to the first and second sectors, making it a poor decision to stay on slicks.
Had the rain remained confined to the final sector and dried quickly, it could have been a brilliant strategy. But with the sudden shift of the raincloud over the entire track, the strategy collapsed, leaving no time to react.
There were multiple moments when Racing Bulls could have changed their strategy and still left Australia with a respectable result. But considering the full context, we can better understand the team’s decision-making process and why certain choices were made.
A real shame because if Tsunoda had pitted on lap 44—when the team originally planned the stop—he could have secured a fantastic fourth place, taking advantage of Oscar Piastri’s off-track excursion and Charles Leclerc’s spin. This would have rewarded both Yuki Tsunoda and the team for their efforts.
“The timing of the pit stop didn’t work in our favor today. It was too late, and suddenly I dropped to P11 after the Safety Car. The pace was there, and we didn’t make many mistakes—at least until it started raining again. I did what I could, and I was satisfied with my performance. We’ll review everything and learn from it for the future,” – Yuki Tsunoda explained.
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it—we got the last call wrong, and it cost us dearly today. For that, we apologize to Yuki. The gamble to keep him out didn’t pay off, but that’s part of the harsh reality of motorsport. The only way to improve is to work harder as a team,” said Team Principal Laurent Mekies.
Nevertheless, this does not erase the fact that the VCARB02 showed strong pace during the Australian weekend—an encouraging sign after an inconsistent winter.
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