Racing Bulls’ blunt ‘nowhere to hide’ admission after botched Tsunoda call

Racing Bulls have "nowhere to hide" following a botched pit-stop call for Yuki Tsunoda in the Australian Grand Prix, boss Laurent Mekies has told RacingNews365. 

Tsunoda qualified an excellent fifth in Melbourne, and was running in the points ahead of both Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, maintaining the position through the lap 34 safety car. 

However, when the rain returned 10 laps later, Tsunoda, as well as the Ferrari drivers, all stayed out for one lap too long and fell down the order from a possible podium place to the fringes of the points.

Following the final restart, Tsunoda could not make forward progress from 12th, finishing out of the points, as Racing Bulls' rivals Williams and Stake both scored big hauls. 

Reflecting on the lost race, Mekies committed to an investigation, but openly admitted to the mistake.

"Yuki was doing a very, very strong race in the wet, and in the dry, he was able to hold onto P5/P6, that was very encouraging for us," Mekies exclusively told RacingNews365. 

"There is nowhere to hide and we got the last call wrong in keeping him out when the rain returned, we lost many positions and when we pitted him, it was too late.

"It is something we will review together, and there are ways to ensure we work harder and come back stronger. You learn into your processes and your assessments and come back stronger."

When then asked if the decision not to pit Tsunoda was simply 'one of those things' that can happen, Mekies rejected the premise.

"I don't like those 'these things happen' because it implies that you don't have anything to fix it," he continued.

"It is not the way we look at it. We look at it as we got it wrong and we need to make sure that moving forward, we get this sort of call right. 

"It is frustating as in a race like that, you get so many calls right, which was why we were able to keep the position at the front, but because that one was so badly wrong, we will review and find something to protect us from doing that same mistake again."