{"id":25188,"date":"2024-10-14T03:30:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T07:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=25188"},"modified":"2024-10-14T03:36:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T07:36:54","slug":"how-red-bull-are-failing-tsunoda-and-lawson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/14\/how-red-bull-are-failing-tsunoda-and-lawson\/","title":{"rendered":"How Red Bull are failing Tsunoda and Lawson"},"content":{"rendered":"

For obvious reasons, there is immense scrutiny on Red Bull<\/a> and their driver pool. In just twelve months, four drivers (Tsunoda<\/a>, De Vries, Ricciardo and Lawson) have raced for VCARB – Red Bull’s second team. However, for all the conversation surrounding which drivers are behind the wheel, there is a fundamental issue being overlooked. VCARB are not fast enough.<\/p>\n

Red Bull are not providing their drivers with a competitive car at VCARB<\/h2>\n

Red Bull have lost a lot of ground in this year’s development race. There are no shortage of articles analysing the Austrian team’s decline and the emergence of McLaren and Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Amidst this focus on Red Bull, another team is suffering the consequences of their decline – VCARB.<\/p>\n

Roughly twelve months ago, it was announced that VCARB would work more closely with Red Bull. After two relatively underwhelming campaigns in 2022 and 2023, Christian Horner’s team<\/a> decided to take a more proactive role in VCARB’s development.<\/p>\n

In theory, this change was designed to make the Italian-based team more competitive. For some time, this approach yielded results.<\/p>\n

Yuki Tsunoda was often ‘best of the rest’ at the beginning of 2024, regularly scoring points and even putting himself 10th overall in the standings. Unfortunately for the Japanese driver, top-10 finishes have become increasingly difficult to come by.<\/p>\n

Much like Red Bull, Laurent Mekies’ personnel are struggling with development. Upgrades are not working as the wind tunnel data suggests – meaning the VCARB 01 has been stagnant in terms of performance.<\/p>\n

As a result, neither Tsunoda or Ricciardo<\/a> secured points in the races after the summer break.<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>