Naomi Schiff believes 67-race F1 driver is feeling ‘threatened’ by his teammate

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Sky Sports pundit Naomi Schiff has suggested that Visa Cash App RB driver Yuki Tsunoda may now feel ‘threatened’ by teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Yuki Tsunoda had looked like the quicker of the two RB cars throughout qualifying and the race but was unhappy with some of the instructions he received over the radio.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Schiff has suggested that the Japanese driver’s attitude may be a problem going forward.

Naomi Schiff suggests Yuki Tsunoda feels threatened by Daniel Ricciardo

Yuki Tsunoda enters the fourth season of his Formula 1 career with something to prove.

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez is under constant pressure with his contract running down and David Coulthard wasn’t particularly impressed by what he saw from the Mexican compared to his teammate.

The 67-race driver – he’s only started 64 of those Grand Prix – has admitted that it’s his dream to race for RB’s sister team one day.

However, he’s not the only driver with that goal, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo in a similar position.

Schiff now believes that Tsunoda is feeling threatened by Daniel Ricciardo as he’s no longer the senior driver in the team.

Against Nyck de Vries last season he was clearly the quicker driver and has impressed against his current teammate too.

But he can’t let frustration get the better of him even if the strategy calls made by RB were described as ‘very bizarre’.

Tsunoda entering vital stage of his Formula 1 career

Speaking about the 23-year-old, Schiff said: “We’ve seen Yuki [Tsunoda] in the past when he gets frustrated it’s quite loud, it’s quite colourful and it just played out on track.

“And I think he’s really got to be careful with that kind of stuff because the team have warned him about it in the past, where they’ve been vocal about that.

“Last year, it seemed like he took a real step forward in that sense, he kind of matured a lot, took a lead role in the team.

“I think maybe he feels a bit threatened with Daniel [Ricciardo] in the team. There’s a lot of talk about Daniel being there to potentially get the Red Bull and I think he feels slightly overlooked.

“So, he’s just got to find a way to deal with that frustration because doing things like that on track is not going to help.

“The more you can reign in your anger and manage the situation, the better it’s going to be for him on track.”

Tsunoda’s action in Bahrain backed up the notion from Schiff that he feels threatened right now.

He did everything possible during the race to climb into the top ten and was running in the points for a decent stint.

However, RB put him on a sub-optimal strategy and if that keeps happening then he’s going to be more and more frustrated.

Ricciardo appeared to be their preferred driver during Saturday’s race despite Tsunoda starting ahead of him and it’ll be interesting to see if that continues in Jeddah.