Tsunoda was doing better though. Sure if you look at the points and standings you don’t see a big difference. But during race day he almost always managed to increase the gap significantly between him and de Vries during the first stint. The problem is that the car is shit and loses performance at around the 2/3 mark, because the tires lose grip or the brakes become slippery. That’s when he lost significant places in a lot of races

It was expected because the negativeness in the media and from Marko/Horner. I saw a interview last week and when Marko was asked any question about de Vries his face really turned sour. Yes the AT is shit, but Tsunoda is outperforming de Vries most of the time. My guess was that he would be out before Zandvoort but not before the summer break.

As far as I know NDV never raced a Mercedes. He performs well in practice all the time, it’s just when it comes to the race that he makes mistake after mistake.

Tsunoda is doing much better, and more vitally was part of the RB academy. NDV was a hire outside their academy and they’re regretting it. Tsunoda also didn’t come into his rookie year loudly proclaiming that he’s “not a rookie” and shouldn’t be treated like one.