Yuki Tsunoda’s progress at AlphaTauri hasn’t always been easy to pick out, partly because the team has produced successively less competitive cars since his 2021 debut, and then due to the parade of different team mates he had this year.
He began the season alongside newcomer Nyck de Vries, but as soon as Red Bull had a sniff of getting Daniel Ricciardo back in a car, the writing was on the wall for the Formula E champion. He hadn’t shown up well against Tsunoda, and made matters worse for himself with a few unnecessary collisions, but nonetheless ushering him out the door before the halfway point in the season looked hasty by Red Bull, particularly when compared to Tsunoda’s similarly rough start two years earlier.Tsunoda might have been happy for de Vries to see the season out, such was the superiority he enjoyed. What he did not need was a hugely experienced race-winner turning up in the team’s other car and out-qualifying him at the first time of asking.
However, to Tsunoda’s credit, this was not entirely the shape of things to come. By the end of his seven-race spell as Ricciardo’s team mate, he had narrowly won the qualifying duel, the clincher coming at Yas Marina. Tsunoda has pulled off strong results there in the past and the same was true again this year as he battled to eighth place which was not quite enough to clinch seventh in the points for AlphaTauri, but might have been with a sharper strategy.
Ricciardo should have been Tsunoda’s team mate for the majority of the season, but the broken metacarpal he sustained at Zandvoort put paid to that. It handed a precious opportunity to Liam Lawson, who had been overlooked for promotion from Formula 2 the year before, but gave a good account of himself in Japanese Super Formula this year.
Lawson and Tsunoda had been team mates before in junior categories, and at times their cars seemed magnetically attracted to each other with destructive consequences. Fortunately there was no repeat of that this year, despite Lawson putting up an impressive display in his five-race spell as an F1 driver.
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While Tsunoda had a scruffy weekend in Singapore, Lawson capitalised, and delivered AlphaTauri’s best result of the season up to that point. He raced Tsunoda hard at Suzuka as well, putting his recent knowledge of his team mate’s home track to good use.
Red Bull have repeatedly insisted Perez will continue to drive for them next year despite his poor performance this season. But Ricciardo has to be considered a strong future candidate for that seat, and Tsunoda could make a case for himself if he can get on terms with his team mate next year.
As for Lawson, his performance as Ricciardo’s understudy left few in doubt he deserves a proper crack in the future. As things stand, he will be on the sidelines next year, but he may not have to be patient for long.
Tsunoda vs team mates: Summary
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Tsunoda vs team mates: Race-by-race
| BAH | SAU | AUS | AZE | MIA | MON | SPA | CAN | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | QAT | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | ABU | ||
| Tsunoda | Q |  | | | |  | | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | |
| R | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| BAH | SAU | AUS | AZE | MIA | MON | SPA | CAN | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | QAT | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | ABU | ||
| Ricciardo | Q | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| R | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| BAH | SAU | AUS | AZE | MIA | MON | SPA | CAN | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | QAT | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | ABU | ||
| Lawson | Q | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| R | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Tsunoda vs team mates: Qualifying gap
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: de Vries was faster; Positive value: Tsunoda was faster
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Ricciardo was faster; Positive value: Tsunoda was faster
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Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Lawson was faster; Positive value: Tsunoda was faster
More team mate battles
Tsunoda
Ricciardo
- Tsunoda makes solid start as de Vries’ replacement provides toughest test yet
- Ricciardo grins and bears it through grim final season alongside Norris
- Ricciardo’s Monza victory softens his decisive defeat by Norris
- Team mate battles 2020: The final score – Ricciardo vs Ocon
- Team mate battles 2019: The final score – Ricciardo vs Hulkenberg
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Formula 1
- F1 CEO Domenicali wants more than six sprint races per year
- Hulkenberg named Audi’s first F1 driver for 2026
- Ricciardo needs to show “head-turning form” for 2025 chance – Horner
- F1 Commission defers decision on points change and approves new rear cameras
- Red Bull’s star designer Newey to leave team – reports
David
11th December 2023, 11:59
The pro-Ricciardo bias in the anglophone press is remarkable.
The stats don’t lie, Tsunoda beat him by every metric.
Riccardo’s standout performance was in a qualifying session that Yuki sacrificed because of penalties. In the race he had got back on terms with Ricciardo until making a silly error (the one he most regrets).
Let’s not forget that Ricciardo is a multiple race winner. He’s not someone that should be performing at a similar level to Lawson or Tsunoda.
If anyone should get the promotion to Red Bull it should be Yuki. But the anglophone media seems unable to even consider that. Because, you know, Daniel smiles a lot and loves the banter. He must be the better driver.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
11th December 2023, 12:35
This quite a biased post- Honda is that you?
SteveP
12th December 2023, 19:13
It seemed quite balanced to me.
Unless you’ve got blinkers on that hide Riccardo failings, you have to admit that the only metric that exists is the results and on that metric Ricciardo, unlike de Vries or Lawson, didn’t improve relative to Tsunoda over the available time. Lawson was a pleasant surprise for most of us, and probably a totally unwelcome surprise for Ricciardo and Marko.
On the basis of results improving over time, Lawson should be in the seat in 2024 and Ricciardo is the stand-in.
Honda
13th December 2023, 0:23
Lol no. But I agree with him that media is biased towards Ricciardo and Yuki is underrated. Let us see next year but I think he will beat him again next year. Though, I do not think RBR is considering Yuki. Franz Tost who is gone and Helmut, who is likely to leave in 2024 seems to support Yuki. Obviously Honda backs him and wants him in F1 but they do not have any influence any more. CH obviously favors Ricciardo and he is hoping Ricciardo can beat Yuki.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
11th December 2023, 15:48
Considering Daniel stepped into an unfamiliar car in the middle of the season, had been out of racing for six months and was given no time to prepare physically and mentally. And then adding to that having that hand injury that needed healing, rehab, and another reset, I’d say it reflects poorly on Yuki that Daniel was as close to him (considering 3 consecutive seasons of experience at the team compared to this).
I’d be surprised if Yuki keeps this slight advantage over Daniel next year.
notagrumpyfan
12th December 2023, 7:56
Seriously?
You think Ricciardo had it tougher?
Ricciardo has many years of F1 racing under his belt, and is used to stepping into a new F1 car for a race.
(As Australian) I was hoping for a significantly better return, or at least steeper progress. He was the strongest competitor against Yuki (% qualified and racing laps ahead), but I still see more of the McLaren Ricciardo than the STR, RBR, or even the Renault Ricciardo.
Having said that, I think he is still a (tiny) step up from Perez in the Red Bull.
MichaelN
11th December 2023, 15:51
There is a big bias, that’s true. The Austrians are honorary English, after all.
But more to the point… Ricciardo’s 2023 season was a bit of a mess, as @sjaakfoo rightly notes. Tsunoda has never been impressive at all, and if Ricciardo doesn’t comprehensively beat him in 2024 then he might as well quit.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
12th December 2023, 8:01
Yuki didn’t really get back on terms with Daniel in Mexico. He had an early pit stop moving on to the hard and was 40 seconds behind, when Ricciardo pitted he came out 12 s behind on much much older tyres. The red flag saved Yuki about half a minute in tyre wear/cutting the gap.
anon
12th December 2023, 8:44
David, if you are talking about Mexico then, as others note, Tsunoda didn’t really “get back on terms”, but rather was on a strategy that only worked because the red flag moved him ahead of all of the other drivers that had pitted before he did.
If he had to pit under normal racing conditions, he’d have come back out in 16th place – he barely passed anybody on track, with virtually every single position he made either from the red flag period or from drivers ahead of him retiring from the race.
Coventry Climax
11th December 2023, 21:00
In order to collide, you first have to be near each other.
This may mean two things: they were either teammates in seasons where their car wasn’t much good, and they were both easily able to extract the maximum from it, but which one of them might have had the most performance to spare could not be shown, or, even in a more competitive car, they are fairly evenly matched. Given most of the junior series are spec, and given how Lawson did in F1, I’d say they are fairly evenly matched. Turn that around and likely, neither of them is all that special. I do credit Lawson with a much more level head though, which may go a long way in F1.
Then, if Ricciardo’s season was a bit messy, but Tsunoda consistently failed to impress, as is said above, that also means Ricciardo hasn’t been impressive one bit. That does not bode good. He certainly needs to be on top of his game in ’24, or he’s toast.
Coventry Climax
11th December 2023, 21:15
Your comment is awaiting moderation. – beats me why:
Lawson and Tsunoda had been team mates before in junior categories, and at times their cars seemed magnetically attracted to each other with destructive consequences. Fortunately there was no repeat of that this year, despite Lawson putting up an impressive display in his five-race spell as an F1 driver.
In order to collide, you first have to be near each other.
This may mean two things: they were either teammates in seasons where their car wasn’t much good, and they were both easily able to extract the maximum from it, but which one of them might have had the most performance to spare could not be shown, or, even in a more competitive car, they are fairly evenly matched. Given most of the junior series are spec, and given how Lawson did in F1, I’d say they are fairly evenly matched. Turn that around and likely, neither of them is all that special. I do credit Lawson with a much more level head though, which may go a long way in F1.
Then, if Ricciardo’s season was a bit messy, but Tsunoda consistently failed to impress, as is said above, that also means Ricciardo hasn’t been impressive one bit. That does not bode good. He certainly needs to be on top of his game in ’24, or he’s out of a seat for ’25.
Markos
11th December 2023, 21:27
The only AT driver that was impressive was Lawson.
Todfod (@todfod)
12th December 2023, 11:28
True..lol..Even though the stats don’t show it.
He jumped in to an F1 car for the first time mid season and was close to Yuki from the get go. If he had started the season instead of De Vries, I reckon he would have outscored Yuki over an entire season. Daniel did decently, but nothing overly impressive either… just one qualifying session in Mexico was the highlight.
If I had to rank the AT drivers this season it would be –
#4 De Vries
#3 Ricciardo
#2 Tsonuda
#1 Lawson
Erkr
12th December 2023, 13:11
Lawson was comprehensively outqualified by Tsunoda. AT strategies often destroyed Tsunoda’s races
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
12th December 2023, 8:10
I’ve never rated Yuki, I think he’s too impetuous and emotional for the Red Bull seat. That said, you can only beat what’s put in front of you. De Vries was never F1 standard for me, evidenced by being overlooked by half the teams for half a decade. Lawson was thrown in at the deep end and had strong races, particularly Singapore where Yuki was out and Japan where it was a close battle and he won out (I’d expect a Honda man to beat his junior team-mate around there). Ricciardo had highs and lows, to be honest I felt it was too stop start to get a proper gauge.
The overall feeling I have is that the two ‘stand in’ drivers could have matched Yuki over the season but in reality didn’t. Yuki’s performance in the last handful of rounds was much improved too – is it good enough for RB or another team to offer him a drive? I doubt it, but certainly progress in the final few rounds.
Honda
13th December 2023, 1:07
Lawson did better than expected but if you look at times. Lawson could not beat Yuki’s Q1 time even when track was improving and he even qualified for Q3. Yuki was unlucky to miss out on points in Monza, Singapore and obviously Monaco when he had brake issue when he was at P9. In Suzuka, if you paid attention you will know he got screwed by the team again. Lawson got 5 lap undercut on him in second stop. Even though Yuki caught him rather quickly once he got in DRS he was stuck and doing same time as his team mate. Ricciardo was the closest to him comparison. But apart from Mexico I think he had him covered and even there before Red flag his pace was impressive.
JA
12th December 2023, 8:14
Yuki has shown progress, but still very little in comparison to how many years he have been in F1 now. I was very high on him joining F1 and believed he could be a household name for a team like Alpha Tauri. Now not so much as I have more than just a feeling that the AT was underperforming in Yuki hands for the most part of the season. The reason why is he lack of ability to preserve tires. He weight less than all other F1 drivers meaning he and the team has the potential to distribute weight elsewhere and yet Yuki is nearly always the first to pit on track were degregation is an issue – only the Haas PAIR showed similar trends throughout the season, which was clearly down to the car.
Yuki did beat his teammates in fashionable style, but what teammates? A declining Ricciardo for the past 3-4 years and two rookies? It’s not that he shouldn’t keep a seat, but Lawsons performances was from the beginning an eye-opener to Yukis.
If Yuki doesn’t start to find his groove with the tires it won’t be long until he is out of F1.
Erkr
12th December 2023, 8:39
Yuki has been impressive this year. Your bias lens doesn’t do his drives justice. He destroyed Daniel and his early pitstops were mostly due to poor AT strategy.
JA
12th December 2023, 13:35
What bias? I held him in high regard in F2 and F3, and also when entering F1. He hardly destroyed Ricciardo as Ricciardo barely ran in the other car and Ricciardo is a benchmark for mediocrity these days, if not worse, and thats coming from a fan of his. He didn’t destroy Lawson even though that would have been expected.
The big tell on the early pitstop have always been the decline in pace prior to the pitstop.
Maisch (@maisch)
12th December 2023, 8:25
Ric will need to step up the game, most of his races werent convincing at all. On the other hand he havent done much outstanding in many many years. I hope he wont end up just blocking the seat for all the upcoming interesting talents out there. There are enough of those type of drivers atm…