Norris was in the DRS range of Perez.LM10 wrote: ↑09 May 2024, 18:56I stand corrected. I didn’t pay much attention to it while watching. Norris managed to decrease the gap to Sainz by about 4 tenths per lap on average. Though, I think that Sainz might have stressed his tires more being within DRS range of Leclerc for several laps and pushing.AR3-GP wrote: ↑06 May 2024, 00:32Not being able to overtake is a different matter. It's because of the circuit. I'm talking about Norris's pace in free air compared to everyone else in free air and that's what the teams care about too.LM10 wrote: ↑06 May 2024, 00:26
Norris didn't manage to overtake Perez on track and after Perez went into pits he was not really closing the gap to Sainz. It was only after the SC on new hards when he was clearly faster than the rest, but he could have not gotten any more lucky pitting for new hards and restarting from P1. The tires hate to be put through a second heat cycle after cooling down which happened to everyone's tires behind Norris.
And by the way, Norris was eating Sainz alive after Perez pitted. I'm not sure what data you found. Norris was taking 3-4 tenths a lap from lap 19-26 when Sainz pitted, and then still going faster than Sainz,Leclerc, Verstappen by 1-2 tenths when those guys put on new hard tires. No one was talking about it in the race thread before the safety car. Only I made a post when I saw the laptimes:
https://i.postimg.cc/BQNssZHc/image.png
Though, the Hards Norris’ pace advantage (corrected for much fresher tires, free air and only one restart after SC) was not so big anymore. Especially Leclerc on 12 laps older tires than Norris and 7 or 8 laps older tires than Max managed it pretty well and basically matched Max’ pace despite being in his dirty air.
In the final stint on Hards, Norris wasn't really pushing. Norris tire advantage is overstated. There was no deg in Miami.