Is the Daniel Ricciardo era over? The Aussie driver who had the entire crowd behind him at Qualifying in Melbourne destroyed his chances by knocking himself out in Q1. While the Honey Badger feels it was his VCARB’s lack of speed that cost him, the glaring track limits error shows otherwise. Moreover, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda who made it to Q3 in the same machinery made his post-qualifying comments look worse.

Daniel Ricciardo violated track limits in his last flying attempt in Q1. He went too wide in Turn 4 and then the lap was as good as done. While he did acknowledge the mistake made, he blamed his car’s inconsistency for the Q1 knockout.

“Even now I don’t think it’s fully sunk in,” Ricciardo said on F1TV. “I knew in turn 4, I was fighting it and I was a little bit wider. It happened and you think about the next corner. So I nearly forgot about it until he (race engineer) brought it up. But honestly, the lap felt like I gave it all I had. So I was happy with the lap but I wasn’t happy with still where we are in terms of the stopwatch. For me, that is still not quite adding up in my head. It’s been a struggle all weekend.” 

He affirmed that the team had done some work to get upgrades after Saudi Arabia. But he remains “skeptical” about their performance.

It seems rather ironic that the VCARB 01 is troubling Ricciardo this much but Tsunoda seems to be driving as if he’s the Max Verstappen of the junior team.

Yuki Tsunoda gives “big credit” to Visa Cash App RB out-qualifying Daniel Ricciardo in Melbourne

Red Bull’s junior team is seeing the tides suddenly change. Daniel Ricciardo was supposed to be a reference point for the much-junior Yuki Tsunoda. But in the first 3 race weekends in 2024, the 23-year-old is outclassing his 8-time Grand Prix-winning teammate.

“I enjoyed it for sure,” the Japanese driver said after qualifying P8 at Albert Park. “The car felt good. And big credit to the team. I felt good confidence from FP1 straight away. Consistently we were in P10. I think that was the main reason we were able to squeeze a couple of milliseconds in the end.”

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If Yuki Tsunoda can continue this level of performance into tomorrow’s Australian GP and the rest of the year, Ricciardo’s junior team seat could be unsafe, let alone his chances at Sergio Perez’s 2025 Red Bull seat.