Mekies confident there's more to come from Tsunoda

RB staff principal Laurent Mekies is assured there may be much more to return from Yuki Tsunoda after extending his contract by way of the 2025 season.

Tsunoda has been one of many standout performers of the 2024 season thus far, scoring factors in 5 of the 9 races this 12 months and customarily getting the higher of teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Mekies was impressed by the progress Tsunoda made out of final 12 months to this, however says the staff sees much more potential within the 24-year-old that it needs to unlock.

“What’s stopping us from sleeping at evening is ensuring we have now the surroundings for the weeks, months, years to return, that be certain that we get Yuki to have one other step,” Mekies instructed RACER. “Or multiple step. We don’t need him to cease now, we expect there may be extra in Yuki.

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“Despite the fact that he’s already at an unbelievable stage, we expect there may be extra to return for what he’s displaying. So we simply have to verify we have now the right combination of constructive dynamics and aggression to verify we get these steps out of him.”

Tsunoda himself is assured that step ahead will come, and has felt the transition at RB from former boss Franz Tost to Mekies has been a clean one which has additionally helped his personal performances.

“By way of staff principal, Franz and Laurent really feel fairly just like be sincere,” Tsunoda mentioned. “They provide me rather a lot, we have now pure chats each morning every time we meet, and I really feel huge help from each, which I actually admire.

“One factor that has been a constructive change as a staff is that it looks like the entire engineering staff and the mechanics have grow to be extra linked to one another. So the philosophy that Laurent needs to realize was possibly a special method to Franz, and has helped the staff to be a bit extra collectively.

“That connection, for me, is essential, and I worth it rather a lot. It provides us some further motivation to work as a staff in the identical route and ensure we’re on the identical web page with each element. I attempt to be aligned with these issues.”