Karun Chandhok thinks 32-podium F1 driver is ‘not doing enough’

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Karun Chandhok believes Daniel Ricciardo is ‘not doing enough’ ahead of his home race at the Australian GP as Yuki Tsunoda has ‘the upper hand’ at Visa Cash App RB.

Melbourne saw Formula 1 cars hit the streets for the first time this weekend during practice on Friday. But Ricciardo ran 0.653 seconds slower than Tsunoda in FP1 and remained 0.346s off his teammate’s pace in FP2. Ricciardo’s best time was a 1:18.534, to Tsunoda’s 1:18.188.

Ricciardo will hope to emerge as the lead RB driver come qualifying and in the Australian GP. But he was the second Visa Cash App RB pilot in qualifying for the Bahrain GP and the Saudi Arabian GP. Tsunoda took P11 and P9 respectively to the Perth native in just P14 both times.

Yuki Tsunoda has the ‘upper hand’ on Daniel Ricciardo at RB

Only team orders also moved Ricciardo in front of Tsunoda in the closing laps of the Bahrain GP. RB sought to switch their drivers with the 34-year-old on soft tyres to the 23-year-old on hards. But Ricciardo would not overtake Kevin Magnussen to finish right in front of Tsunoda.

Tsunoda would out-finish Ricciardo at the Saudi Arabian GP, though, despite receiving a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release. It dropped the Japanese gem down to P15 ahead of the Australian in P16. Ricciardo did not capitalise having spun after taking too much kerb.

Karun Chandhok thinks Daniel Ricciardo is ‘not doing enough’

But Chandhok feels Tsunoda has held the ‘upper hand’ over Ricciardo since they first shared the Visa Cash App RB garage at the 2023 Hungarian GP. The Sky Sports F1 pundit also feels Ricciardo’s woes may cost him a chance to maybe replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull in 2025.

 “They’ve brought Daniel in as this experienced hand who was going to lead the team,” said Chandhok on Sky Sports F1 (22/03, 07:37). “But in the time they’ve had as a head-to-head, Yuki’s actually had the upper hand.

“You have to say this year he feels like he’s upped his game. The gap between them in Saudi was half a second [and it was] three-tenths today, again. And because of the stuff going on with Red Bull, this is a potential battle for a seat in the big team for, especially, for Daniel.

“We always thought it was going to be him vs Perez for that seat. But, so far, you have to say he’s not quite been doing enough to beat Yuki.”

Ricciardo joined Tsunoda at the Faenza natives whilst they operated as AlphaTauri to replace Nyck de Vries mid-season last year. They have since contested nine F1 rounds together, with Liam Lawson substituting in five races for Ricciardo after he broke his hand at the Dutch GP.

But over Ricciardo’s nine rounds as Tsunoda’s teammate, he has finished behind the Honda-backed driver five times to four. RB have also seen Tsunoda out-qualify Ricciardo 6-3 ahead of this weekend’s Australian GP. Tsunoda has also scored 15 points to the Perth native’s six.

Ricciardo, who has won eight Grand Prix and stood on 32 podiums in his Formula 1 career to date, scored his sole points for RB at the 2023 Mexico City GP with P7. Tsunoda has finished in the top 10 in Belgium, the USA, Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi as Ricciardo’s teammate to date.