Having previously called on Daniel Ricciardo to raise his game, Helmut Marko turns his attention to his RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

By his own admission, Ricciardo has had a difficult start to the season, admittedly not all of his own making. Indeed, as was the case at McLaren, the Australian is thought to be not entirely happy with his car.

"We need to give him a car that he's more comfortable with," Laurent Mekies told Motorsport.com. "Yuki had a car that he was very comfortable with from FP1 here (in Melbourne), he added.

"We probably reached that stage only in qualifying with Daniel, and from there you need to build. And we feel that he has certainly done that in the race. He was as fast as the guys getting the points, so we would have been fighting for points with a more decent starting position.

"It's another positive to take home, the fact that Daniel has produced a very strong race as well, even if he was starting from the back," said the Frenchman.

"Ricciardo needs a safe and confident car," added Helmut Marko. "I hope the team can give him that so he can at least be on par with Yuki."

Ricciardo's issues in the opening races have left him, according to some, susceptible to losing his seat at RB, with some media outlets claiming he has until Miami to raise his game - a claim denied by everyone involve incidentally - nonetheless, a move up to the 'big team' any time soon would appear to a distant dream for the popular Aussie.

However, according to Marko, if Tsunoda thinks his chances of promotion are any better, he's got another think coming.

"Every lap he was competitive and didn't do anything wrong, he was calm," said the Austrian of the Japanese driver's performance in Melbourne.

"But as we say, one swallow does not make a summer," he added. "So, he has to improve more before he can be considered in this direction."

"Every race week I'm just resetting myself, at each track we perform a little bit differently," said Tsunoda. "The good thing is our car is pretty consistent in terms of performance, that we didn't have last year. We were kind of up and down, so that's one of the strengths.

"It was frustrating the last two races," he admitted. "A couple of situations happened and there was an opportunity that we could score points, and we lost it.

"We knew that we needed a clean race and I think we achieved it. We didn't have any mistakes. That's very important for me and for a team to have a good confidence for upcoming races."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Apexing, 03/04/2024 15:00

"@Kenji How can I put this delicately...? Let's put it this way, this was years before Bill Clinton got in trouble for having a similar grin on his face..."

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2. Posted by kenji, 01/04/2024 1:51

"@Apexing...... Que?"

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3. Posted by Apexing, 31/03/2024 17:54

""But as we say, one swallow does not make a summer," Completely disagree. Back in 1984, one swallow made my entire summer. And here it is 40 years later, and I'm still grinning about that one. "

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Tsunoda warned to up his game also

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