Racing Bulls ended the stage in Madrid with Arvid Lindblad in ninth place, a result that secured points for the team, while Yuki Tsunoda finished only 14th after having his car damaged right on the first lap of the Formula 1 Spanish GP. For the team principal, Alan Permane, Lindblad’s performance showed there was pace to score points, but the accident involving Tsunoda had a significant impact on his race.
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Lindblad arrived at the weekend knowing that strategy would play an important role, but the VSC reduced the possibilities for alternatives. Since practically all drivers went to the pits at that moment, the Racing Bulls driver spent the rest of the race on hard tires, trying to find a way to overtake Franco Colapinto of Alpine, who remained ahead of him for much of the race.
“I tried everything I could, being smart with my energy management and using it in different ways to see if I could find a way to pass. Unfortunately, there was no real opportunity to overtake,” said Lindblad. Even without being able to advance, he highlighted the pace shown during the race and considered it positive to leave a weekend that had started with a setback on Friday with a few more points.
In the other Racing Bulls car, Tsunoda had his result practically decided at turn 1. The contact with Carlos Sainz of Williams caused considerable damage to the car, and according to Permane, the loss of performance was at least half a second. The difficulty to overtake on the circuit made any recovery attempt even more complicated.
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“The race was practically over for me at turn 1, where I suffered a lot of damage in the collision with Sainz, and the impact of that on our pace was significant,” added Tsunoda. The Japanese driver also assessed that the pace was not bad given the car’s conditions, but acknowledged that he lost positions at the start and had no opportunities to recover them.
Permane, in turn, assessed that Racing Bulls can leave Madrid confident in the potential demonstrated: “We had a pretty decent day today, with Arvid coming away with some points, so we can be confident that the pace is there,” concluded the team principal, who now turns his attention to Baku and the start of a sequence of three consecutive races.
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