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The Visa CashApp RB team sits sixth in the standings after the Miami Grand Prix with 19 points scored so far this season.
Yuki Tsunoda ahead of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying (Image Credit: Visa CashApp RB)Yuki Tsunoda, sitting tenth in the Drivers’ Standings, has scored 14 of those points. Daniel Ricciardo scored the other five in the most recent race weekend in Miami.
Despite only finishing 15th in the Grand Prix, Ricciardo picked up the points by finishing fourth in the Sprint Race, while Tsunoda gained a point with his eighth place finish in the Sprint, and then six more points by finishing seventh in the race the following day.
It was a great showing from the RB team, who now have 12 points over their closest rivals (Haas). After a slower start to the season, Tsunoda believes this upward progress means that they could even get up into the top ten.
“It shows how much we’re pushing, you know, especially the people who work in the background,” Tsunoda commented after the Miami Grand Prix. “The progress we’re having throughout the year so far is very fast.
“Every race so far we were always at least driving around the P10 and most of the races we’re scoring points, and recently it’s not even just P10, but P8, P9, P7, P4.
“Obviously, it’s not level yet [with] the Mercedes, for example, but today I [was] able to be on the pace or even faster pace compared to one of the Mercedes.
“So obviously, if we continue like this, maybe we at some point catch up the [top five] teams. We never know and that’s what we aim for for now.”
Could they do it?
Looking at RB sitting in sixth, they’re right on the edge of the top five in the Constructors’ Standings. Well, maybe not right on the edge, since they’re 23 points behind fifth-placed Aston Martin. 23 points is a big ask for a team like RB, especially with four other teams close behind them.
In 2023 RB (then called AlphaTauri) finished eighth in the standings with 25 points, only ahead of Alfa Romeo (now Kick Sauber) and Haas. But unlike last season, this year there doesn’t seem to be any threat of mid-season driver changes, which clearly affected the team’s performance.
It’s easy to see the rest of the season play out in a way that keeps RB scoring more points than Williams (currently points-less), Kick Sauber (currently points-less), and even Haas (currently on seven points).
It’s a little harder to imagine them staying ahead of Alpine (currently on 1 point), despite the team’s dismal start to the season. Last season, Alpine finished 95 points ahead of RB, and even with the struggles that Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon have been experiencing so far, they’re not likely to stay as far down the grid as they have been for the first six rounds.
Even if RB can stay ahead of all the teams behind them, there’s still a pretty massive gap to Aston Martin to clear to get into the top five. It’s not impossible of course, especially if the team continues to improve on their performance in Miami. But it’ll be a big ask from the Red Bull affiliated team.