Lando Norris asks Japanese rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, "how's the DRS?" as AlphaTauri star gives Max Verstappen a run for his money.

At one stage on Sunday, Japanese hot-shot, Yuki Tsunoda was trading fastest times with 'veteran' Max Verstappen, the pair eventually separated by just 0.093s and over half-a-second clear of their nearest rivals.

As the paddock lauded the arrival of a new superstar, Lando Norris was quick to jokingly pour cold water on Tsunoda's parade.

"How's the DRS?" he asked his rival on Instagram along with a laughing emoji.

""He's a good driver, I don't think there's any shock with it," the McLaren driver subsequently explained.

"The AlphaTauri is looking strong," he added. "I think, looking at on-boards and seeing the data that we can see, they look like they have a very strong car. It looks very nice to drive. Good in all kind of conditions.

"They look like they've just had a clean few days, they've looked good in every run they've done, the long runs as well when everyone knows they're just going to be at high fuel, and so on. They look strong."

Indeed, along with fellow Alpha - Romeo - the Faenza outfit completed the most laps, 422 to 'sister' team Red Bull's 369.

"Today was a really, really good day," said the Japanese youngster at session end. "Good progress, no issues and I just focused on my driving... that's what I want to do.

"These two days we had a little bit of bad luck," he continued, "but today we put it all together and I think the mechanics and Honda did a really, really good job. There was no issue, and I was really comfortable to drive all day for the session. I achieved 91 laps and that was really, really good testing.

"I definitely enjoyed the C5, the softest tyre, big grip, and I never had experience like that grip," he said of his string of fastest laps.

While the use of DRS is limited to particular parts of the track on race day, during testing it can be used anywhere, and, as Norris suggests, the Japanese rookie took full advantage.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 19/03/2021 23:42

"It's interesting to note Franz Tost's comments, Tsunoda apparently made a mistake in early activation of his DRS and that he won't be able to do that during a race. So much for the intentional reasons for gaining 'testing' knowledge! Either it was unintentional or else he was showboating? Take your pick..."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by kenji, 17/03/2021 21:53

"@ Moss Man...What relevance is there if you cannot employ the same parameters in a race..none. Your explanation is pure speculation and testing is more than that. Testing gives real performance data for evaluation not mythical track constructions such as those that you've posed. Look at the images of deployment.... Hardly fits your construction! Phew, this is hard work."

Rating: Negative (-2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by MossMan, 17/03/2021 18:13

"@kenji - The purpose of the three day TEST was to TEST the car... so in this case they were TESTING the effects of using DRS.

When you come to deploy DRS in an actual race on a limited section of track with say an uphill gradient of 3% with a tightening left hand corner, negative camber, cross-wind from the right, entry speed of 100kph, track temperature of 30degC - how do you think they get the data to estimate as much of that as they can?!? That's right - BY TESTING. Sheesh..."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by kenji, 16/03/2021 22:51

"@ MossMan...dear oh dear..what a mess!

'As an engineer it would be totally irrelevant to use data generated by using any device which, if used identically during a race, would be deemed illegal. If this data is used to evaluate all teams relativity it is a waste of time unless all team's times are calculated using the same deployment strategy.

"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by kenji, 16/03/2021 22:45

"@ MossMan...as an engineer it would be be totally irrelevant to used data generated by using any device which, if used identically during a race,If this data is accepted as would be illegal. If this data is used to evaluate all teams relativity it is a waste of time unless all teams times are calculated using the same 'deployment' strategy."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by MossMan, 16/03/2021 14:55

"@kenji - as an engineer it would be very important to compare performance with/without DRS under different circumstances - not only for time/speed difference but also how it affects handling and therefore safety. You'd need to gather a lot of data in all sorts of conditions so you can predict the relative effect of using DRS during racing."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by kenji, 16/03/2021 12:52

"What's the point...apart that is, from showboating?"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

DRS key to Tsunoda's pace?

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page