The first races of the 2024 season Formula 1 suggest that teams Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes It is Aston Martin they must dominate the top 10 in both qualifying and races, leaving everyone else to fight for rare opportunities to get into the points.
RB now leads this group, after Yuki Tsunoda secured seventh place in the exciting Australian GPafter qualifying in an encouraging eighth place.
“The team that leads this intermediate field is sixth, that’s where we are now,” he said. Laurent Mekies to the Motorsport.com. “That probably reflects where we’ve been every race in these first three races, with our ups and downs.
“It’s only the third race, there’s a long way to go. And we know the classification is going to change, because now we see that a team brings an upgrade of a tenth, and that’s going to happen a lot of times, and you’re going to move up and down in that group. .”
“So it’s a development race and a perfect execution race. Which is fantastic, it’s great for the fans, it’s great for all of us as competitors. It’s also how we grow, how we learn, and I’m very proud that the team managed to perform perfectly with Yuki in Australia.”
Laurent Mekies, Team Director, RB F1 Team
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“We need to keep our feet on the ground and work harder than before, because this midfield is brutal. And it’s only by trying our best in every department that we can maintain that small advantage.”
“That doesn’t mean we now have that position or that we’re going to lead the midfield all the time. It’s a fight for that last tenth every race weekend. Japan will be a big restart and once again one or two tenths of everything right could take you from P11 to P18.”
The CEO of RB, Peter Bayeragreed that the Melbourne result was a useful boost for the team, especially after the extra effort made to speed up the upgrades.
“It’s not just the points, but also the position that really matters,” said the Austrian. “Because with these five teams, if they have two cars at the end, it’s almost impossible to score.
“Honestly, it was great for the team. Because we were kind of sniffing out the points in Bahrain and Jeddah, and the guys were exhausted, working hard, and at the factory in Faenza it was 24/7 to bring the update, to bring the new mobile wing.
“And that’s how it worked. It was a great relief for the team and certainly a great injection of adrenaline and motivation to move forward.”
“At the end of the day, we’re a team half the size or maybe even smaller than a Mercedes or an Aston, but there’s a lot of emotion and passion in this team. It’s a fantastic group of people who work together and who stick together. I’m very happy for everyone here.”, concluded Bayer.
