NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A STORY, EVEN IF IT ISN’T A GOOD ONE

The second Grand Prix of 2024 has been run and won by Max Verstappen once more.

In an F1 world now seemingly driven by speculation, sensationalism, gossip and innuendo it seems that facts have become somewhat of an unnecessary nuisance.

Sifting through a waft of post race media reports, the recurring theme of Daniel Ricciardo’s drubbing at the hands of teammate Yuki Tsunoda really needs to be addressed.

Here are the facts, from the F1 results pages for the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 

Ricciardo recorded the fastest lap in P1 at Bahrain. He then headed Tsunoda in both P2 and P3 by around 2/10ths of a second.

Tsunoda was then 1/10th faster in Q1 and Q2. 

Ricciardo then recorded a racing lap some 5/10ths faster than Tsunoda’s best. 

Round 2 in Saudi Arabia.

Ricciardo was 1/0th faster in P1. Tsunoda 4/10ths faster in P2 and 2/10ths quicker in P3.

Yuki was just  7/1000ths faster in Q1 and then 6/10ths quicker in Q2.

Ricciardo said he was at a loss to explain how the time blew out in Q2, which seemed to be more than just the inability to adapt to track evolution. It has been reported that RB had found a problem with Ricciardo’s car. 

Of the twelve sessions thus far (practice, qualifying and races) Ricciardo has recorded faster times than his teammate on seven occasions. 

He finished ahead of Tsunoda in Bahrain, admittedly with the aid of team orders. 

In Saudi Arabia Ricciardo had a forty second pit stop which sent him to the rear of the field. He finally finished the race one place behind Tsunoda after a late spin. 

So there we have it, Ricciardo by all media reports has been smoked by Tsunoda. I guess timing and results are more subjective than observations…

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