Tsunoda puts Aston Martin on notice over RB trajectory

Yuki Tsunoda feels that having broken free of the rest of the 'bottom five' in F1, RB can take the fight to Aston Martin ahead.

The Japanese driver has said that over the past couple of rounds, the Italian team has started to separate itself from Haas, Williams, Alpine and Stake. At the start of the season, there were two distinct classes in F1, with Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Aston Martin forming the more dominant half of the grid.

However, through his strong performances and increased pace through development, RB has been able to pick up good points finishes over the past three rounds.

In Miami, team-mate Daniel Ricciardo turned around his early-season struggles to take fourth-place in the sprint, whilst Tsunoda picked up a point before battling from tenth on the grid to seventh position and six further points during the grand prix. 

The 24-year-old followed that up with another point in Imola, before bringing home his RB in eighth at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"I would say so. Yeah, a little bit," Tsunoda replied to media including RacingNews365 when asked if RB was starting to break free from those behind. "Obviously, last couple of races results I think we kind of separate even [from the] top five teams, bottom four teams, I would say."

Further RB development to come

Such is the form Tsunoda has shown since the start to the current campaign, the RB driver finds himself ahead of Lance Stroll in the drivers' standings.

Even before his impressive run over the past three rounds, the 24-year-old was just two points shy of his Canadian counter-part after 5 rounds. Now, he leads the Aston Martin driver 19 points to 11, sitting comfortably in tenth-place.

As RB starts to further close the gap, Tsunoda might find himself with the opportunity to take the fight to Fernando Alonso, who is currently 14 points clear of him.

"We're kind of individual," the Japanese driver said, considering where RB finds itself in relation to other teams. "We slowly start to catch up the Aston [Martin] as well, so I think we're good shape, we're in a good rhythm and we keep pushing what we're doing.

"I think a lot of development is coming in the coming races. So that hopefully that development or upgrades will give us an extra couple of tenths [of a second] and maybe we can catch up Aston."