Yuki Tsunoda, RB, Red Bull Ring, 2024

2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #12: Yuki Tsunoda

Formula 1

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It’s hard not to feel some sympathy for Yuki Tsunoda as he embarks on his fifth season at Red Bull’s second team knowing he has missed his best chance yet to join the leading squad.

That was despite the 24-year-old delivering the most consistently convincing performance of his career to date in 2024, with a car which was only ever capable of low-end points finishes at best.

Tsunoda outpaced Daniel Ricciardo, the much more experienced driver he shared the team with over the opening rounds. He also largely avoided the kind of unnecessary incidents he tended to get involved in previously. Indeed, on the occasions his race ended early, one of his rivals was often to blame, such as Kevin Magnussen (China), Nico Hulkenberg (Italy) or Lance Stroll (Azerbaijan).

He was particularly impressive over the opening races where the RB was at its best. Over the first eight rounds he scored five times, including a fine seventh in Australia featuring an excellent pass on Pierre Gasly and another seventh in Miami ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes.

What his season really lacked was a stand-out performance to make Red Bull sit up and take notice. The closest to that came in Brazil where he qualified a superb third in wet conditions and might have finished higher had his team not wasted the strategic opportunity which Max Verstappen and the Alpine driver exploited to sweep the podium positions.

Yuki Tsunoda

Best Worst
GP start 3 20
GP finish 7 (x3) 19
Points 28

On his worst days, Tsunoda was generally no more than ineffective. He didn’t click with the Shanghai International Circuit on his first visit to it and looked rather lost. He committed one of his most notable errors in Canada, spinning in tricky conditions.

Once Liam Lawson replaced Ricciardo, Tsunoda faltered slightly. He was eclipsed by the newcomer in Austin, then crashed in qualifying in Mexico, only to rebound superbly in Brazil.

At the end of the year Tsunoda could point to a clear superiority in terms of points and performance at RB: he reached Q3 11 times to a combined four for Lawson and Ricciardo. But it still wasn’t enough to sway Red Bull into promoting him. Were some still remembering that bizarre moment after the first race of the season where, having been told to let Ricciardo past him, he threw his car down the inside of his team mate after the race, unnecessarily risking a collision?

RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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14 comments on “2024 Formula 1 driver rankings #12: Yuki Tsunoda”

  1. Seems weird to rank Yuki 12th when he was one of the best qualifiers in the midfield in a car that finished 8th. Would at least have put him above Ocon.

    1. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
      24th January 2025, 11:39

      Ocon delivered a podium in a dog of a car. Even if he had 23 terrible races – 1 tremendous results trumps alot of mediocre and inconsistent drives.

      1. The Alpines were flying in Brazil, did you even care to remove your bias?

        1. And by that pont it was clearly no more a dog than the VCARB as demonstrated by Gasly across the final stretch of the season. Also the strategy blunder in Brazil took Tsunoda out of contention for a podium that day. Not anything he did.

        2. Yes (@come-on-kubica)
          26th January 2025, 13:24

          Both the Alpines didn’t bin it at all (which something Verstappen got the same praise for this). It was not a top 10 car.

  2. So, the 7 drivers from top 4 teams, Alonso, Hulkenburg and both Alpine drivers remain.

    Seems a little harsh to rank Tsunoda behind all of them. At least one of them (Ocon, Fernando, Lewis) should have been behind him.

    1. Considering lawson’s been ranked 16th and the relative difference between the 2 as team mates, doesn’t it seem enough ranking difference already? Goes for everyone saying tsunoda should be higher ofc.

    2. I believe its called a subjective opinion. Theres no absolutes in judging a driver apart from the stopwatch. No need to spend time worrying about the tyranny of placings.

      1. It’s still ok to question the placement, the authors like to hear different opinions being discussed, out of those sumedh mentioned I think you can only make a case for ocon being behind tsunoda, but even so I consider it enough difference with lawson, he didn’t dominate him.

      2. ocon being ahead of*

        1. Hulkenberg got destroyed by Bearman, why is he ranked 9th?

  3. So far so good. Now we’re getting to the juicy bit.

  4. F1 powerranking has Yuki P10. I would personally put him P8. He beat Ricciardo 12-6 in quali. 23-12pts. He beat Lawson 6-0 in quali and 8-4pts. Apparently both of them are very highly rated by RBR. It seems Ricciardo was very close to replace Perez after summer break as well but Horner decided to keep him. In Montréal he had brake issues. RB split the strategy as usual but this time it made sense as it was damp and they gambled with both drivers having different strategy. He was doing impressive job in used inters but he missed his braking 3times that race due to brake issue. That is how Stroll got pass him and then missed it again and Ocon and then he missed his braking once again when he was P9 only few laps before the end. He definitely missed points there but overall he was pretty good. Miami SQ2 with only 1 push lap was also a missed opportunity.

    My guess is Hadjar is much faster than Lawson. But he is only 20 and likely to make mistakes where as Yuki now has 4yrs under his belt. Not sure there will be too many chances this year as I expect AM to consistently be 5th best team at worse and ahead of rest of midfield teams. Top4 are probably out of reach as well. Sainz, Gasly, Ocon are not bad drivers and have more experience. I think bottom 5 teams will be pretty much on par including Sauber as they have shown in last few races of 2024.

    1. I hate that I’m saying this but I think Yuki’s reluctance to follow team orders costed him the seat on the main team

Comments are closed.