“A shot for Yuki Tsunoda is a full drink”: Lando Norris makes a savage joke on RB driver's height
Lando Norris hilariously joked about Yuki Tsunoda's height while talking about drinking. This joke was made during a fan interaction before the 2024 F1 Las Vegas GP.
As of now, Tsunoda is the shortest F1 driver on the grid. He is only five foot and three inches tall and weighs around 54 kg. The Japanese driver is so short that he is the second shortest F1 driver in history, only second to Andrea Montermini who raced briefly in 1994 and 1996. Montermini was five foot one inch tall.
Because of his height, many in the paddock have lightly joked about Tsunoda, including drivers, presenters, and more.
Recently, Lando Norris and Williams drivers Franco Colapinto and Alex Albon were interacting with fans before the 2024 Las Vegas GP. During the session, some talks of drinking came up and the anchor of the session mentioned that Yuki Tsunoda preferred taking shots. Alex Albon lightly joked that Tsunoda and alcohol were a bad combination.
"I think him with alcohol...is not a good combination," Albon said.
Immediately, Lando Norris chimed in and hilariously said that one shot would be an entire drink for the RB driver, making a light joke about his height. The Williams drivers and the crowd burst into laughter after hearing this.
"Because like...a shot for Yuki is a full drink!" Lando joked.
When Yuki Tsunoda explained how RB adjusted the car seat for his height
Back in 2021, when Yuki Tsunoda first joined F1 with AlphaTauri (currently RB), he explained how the team helped create a special car seat for him. Speaking to F1.com, he said that the seat had a lot of foam to bring up its height, and also had a special pedal case for him so that his legs could reach the pedal.
He then touched on the marginal advantage he would get due to his height, but added that it does not make much difference compared to other drivers.
“First, I have to put a lot of foam inside the monocoque to make my seat position higher to see the view clearly. And also, we made a quite special pedal case [for me] to reach the pedals," Tsunoda said.
“We had a lot of work, we put quite a lot of efforts to make the perfect seat, so for me, it isn’t much of a big advantage. I don’t see it as a big [advantage] in Formula 1 because FIA decided where you have to have the weight distribution, and you can’t choose the place you want to put it, so it meant for weight distribution there’s a tiny bit of an advantage but not much," he added.
In the 2024 F1 season, Yuki Tsunoda continues to drive for RB and is currently 11th in the drivers' standings with 28 points.