Tsunoda: I don’t want to blame anyone for the tactical choice

In Zandvoort, a series of four races in which Visa RB managed to score points was interrupted. But if Daniel Ricciardo is mainly dissatisfied with his own work, Yuki Tsunoda made it clear that the team chose an unsuccessful tactic for him.

Daniel Ricciardo (12th): “If you look at the picture as a whole, I am still in a better mood today than yesterday. Immediately after a failed qualifying it is difficult to understand the causes of the problems, but deep down I was more dissatisfied with myself than with any external factors.

Only now did it become clear that something could have been done to make our task easier, but in the end we have to admit that sometimes you have to drive a rather unruly machine. And I’m just angry that I couldn’t handle it better.

But I said yesterday: if you’re out of the fight in the first qualifying session, it means your business is bad. I understood that we had a difficult task today, but even though we didn’t earn any points, I can say that I was satisfied with the race as a whole.

When it was necessary to attack, we attacked with the small reserve of speed that we had. I was mainly able to get through the traffic without losing much time. After the race I promised the team that I would try to qualify much better in Monza, so that it would be easier for us on Sunday.

As the season progresses, we see that if a certain circuit suits your car, you can make a very noticeable step forward. Today I felt that the balance was at a normal level, and thanks to our VCARB 01 we were able to qualify for points, but we just have very strong opponents. Sometimes you have to admit it.”

Yuki Tsunoda (17th): “The team decided to split tactics, but in the end things didn’t go as we wanted. I think our tyre choice was unfortunate (unlike his partner, the Japanese driver started on soft tyres, and Ricciardo’s car had medium tyres in the first stint).

When I returned to the track after the first pit stop, I was already behind most of the cars and until the end of the race I was stuck in traffic, which put me in a zone of disturbed air. I don’t want to blame anyone for choosing such a tactic, but honestly, the timing of the pit stop was completely wrong.

The results of qualifying were not bad and although the car lacked speed yesterday, we managed to get the best possible result. And yet we have to admit that the pace was much worse than we expected. I wanted to earn at least something today, but I didn’t succeed. All in all a tough day.”