RB CEO Peter Bayer has credited the team for fast-tracking an upgrade to the Australian Grand Prix that helped elevate the team to the top of Formula 1’s midfield fight.
The Faenza-based squad had shown flashes of pace in the opening two rounds but without the reward to show for its efforts heading into the weekend in Melbourne.
But Yuki Tsunoda secured his second Q3 appearance of 2024 before capitalising on several high-profile retirements and Fernando Alonso’s time drop to finish seventh.
Although Haas managed to achieve a rare double points finish, Tsunoda’s six-point haul was enough to propel RB into sixth position in the Constructors’ Championship.
Bayer said that the points return was a reward for the engineers who had undertaken relentless schedules to ensure RB could bring developments to its VCARB 01 car.
“It’s not only the points, it is also that position that matters,” Bayer told Autosport. “Because given those five teams, if they have two cars in the finish, then it’s almost impossible to score.
“It was great for the team, honestly. Because we were like sniffing at the points in Bahrain and in Jeddah, and the guys have been exhausted, they’ve been working hard, and at the factory in Faenza it was 24/7 seven days a week to bring the upgrade, to bring the new wing.
“And so it worked. It was a big relief for the team, and certainly a huge injection of adrenaline and motivation to push forward.
“Ultimately we’re a team half as big or maybe even less than then a Mercedes or an Aston, but there is a huge amount of emotion and passion in this team.
“It’s a fantastic group of people who work together and who stick together. I’m super happy for everyone here.”
With last season’s top five appearing to retain a sizeable edge over the rest, teams such as RB are resigned to maximising chances in attritional races to log points.
RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies believes that inheriting sixth position in Australia is a testament to the competitiveness it has upheld through the nascent rounds.
“The team topping that midfield is sixth, that’s where we are right now,” RB Team Principal Laurent Mekies added.
“It probably reflects where we have been in every race for these first three races, with our ups and downs.
“It’s only race three, it’s a long way to go. And we know that classification is actually is going to change, because we see now that one team brings a one-tenth update, and it’s going to happen many times, and you will move up and down that that group.
“So it’s both a development race and a perfect-execution race. Which is fantastic, it’s great for the fan, it’s great for all of us as competitors.
“It’s also how we grow, how we learn, and I’m very proud that the team could execute perfectly with Yuki in Australia.”
However, Mekies has cautioned that RB must remain grounded as the slim margins between the field could lead to the Italian outfit dropping down the pecking order.
“We need to keep our feet on the ground and work harder than even before because this midfield is brutal,” he warned.
“And it’s only by pushing it to the very maximum in every single department that we can keep that very tiny edge.
“It doesn’t mean that now we have this position or that we are going to top the midfield all the time. It’s a fight for the last tenth every race weekend.
“Japan will be a big reset, and again, one or two tenths of nailing everything will be able to slide you from P11 to P18.”
