{"id":11103,"date":"2022-09-26T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/f1vault.co.uk\/?p=11103"},"modified":"2022-09-26T12:00:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:00:26","slug":"prixview-singapore-grand-prix-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/prixview-singapore-grand-prix-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"PRIXVIEW \u2013 Singapore Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Round seventeen sees F1 return to East Asia for the first time in two years and the city-state of Singapore. When the city state returned after a forty-year hiatus the Grand Prix became a round of the world championship and the sports first night race 2008, the streets of Marina Bay have given teams plenty of drama.<\/p>\n

Sometimes referred to as \u2018Monaco of the East\u2019 the 3.1mile circuit wides it is way the planning areas of Downtown Core (Turns 4 to 23) and Kallang (Turns 1 to 3). Similar to Monaco, Jeddah and Baku it runs along the harbourside and the main business district of the city.<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s layout and climate makes it one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar, with Lewis Hamilton commenting that it was twice as hard to negotiate as the more famous Monaco street circuit and unexpectedly physical, requiring double the amount of energy over a single lap as compared to the Monaco circuit.<\/p>\n

Many of the corner names were decided by public ballot, while the straights come from the road names, Turn One Sheares after Benjamin Henry Sheares, the second president of Singapore; Turn Seven was named Memorial due to its proximity to a Second World War civilian memorial, and Turn Ten was named Singapore Sling. The Singapore Sling was changed for the 2013 Grand Prix and Turn Ten is now a flowing left-hander.<\/p>\n

Singapore started life as the Malaysian Grand Prix, first being held in 1961 when the city was part of the Malaysian Federation the Formula Libre and Motorcycle races were both non-championship. While the Malaysian Grand Prix would return in 1999, the success of the race in Singapore would lead to the race being dropped in 2017, citing that the success of Marina Bay<\/p>\n

The event was discontinued after 1973 and a variety of reasons have been suggested, including an increase in traffic, the very high danger and the unsuitability of the track for racing, the inconvenience of having to close roads for the event and fatal accidents during the 1972 and 1973 races.<\/p>\n

The race returned as a round of the world championship in 2008, the sport’s first night race taking place around the Marina. The race sometimes nick-named \u2018Monaco of the East\u2019, is the modern street circuit with straights and wide places in an almost figure-of-eight figuration.<\/p>\n

Singapore is often the longest race running for over an hour and forty-five minutes, this is thanks to the safety car. The demands of racing on a street circuit where the walls are close with the high humidity means drivers make mistakes leading to safety cars and high tyre wear.<\/p>\n

One of the challenges in Singapore is the set-up of the car, FP1 takes place in the daytime meaning that gives the teams extra pressure to get most set up work done in the second practice session. Many drivers push hard to find the limits, however, the start of the 2017 race saw Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen slide into each other at Turn One.<\/p>\n

The races debut in 2008 was mired in controversy, Fernando Alonso won the race but it later emerged that his teammate Nelson Piquet was instructed to crash his Renault and give his teammate an advantage going onto victory, Crashgate remains a scandal no one in the sport talks about.<\/p>\n

The sports first ever night race was a scene to be saw, with drama throughout and seen as the race where Felipe Massa lost the title when he dropped to the back after a botch pit stop dropped out the points finishing thirteen.<\/p>\n

Alonso credited his success to the team’s strategy and bit of luck. He said that the team chose a two-stop strategy with a short initial stint as opposed to a one-stop strategy, considering the difficulties of overtaking on the track and the possibility of brake problems. To this day the question remains what Alonso knew of the conspiracy to have Piquet, his manager and Renault (now Alpine) team principal Flavio Briatore and technical director Pat Symonds to stage the crash which allow Alonso to win.<\/p>\n

2009 saw Lewis Hamilton take the first of four wins in Singapore something Sebastian Vettel has done too. The race the majority of the time features safety cars, drivers need to be able to react and that can make the difference between winning and losing races. It was the only race that season that Brawn or Red Bull didn\u2019t finish on the podium<\/p>\n

Alonso would take his second win under the lights from the pole with Ferrari after holding of Vettel and teammate Mark Webber, after the Red Bull drivers past the two McLaren\u2019s. Webber passed Hamilton after the two collided on lap thirty-six, while Alonso managed to hold off Vettel for the remainder of the race.<\/p>\n

Vettel, an eight-time winner in 2011 before Marina Bay, led the drivers’ championship by over 100 points. He won the race from his 11th pole of the season. Again it was Button, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton who finished in the top five with Webber and Alonso knocked out of the title race.<\/p>\n

Hamilton meanwhile kept his slim hopes alive despite a drive-through penalty. The following season the McLaren driver, in what was his final race before announcing his departure to Mercedes, took pole alongside Pastor Maldonado. But the Englishman lead most of the early race before retiring with a gearbox failure, Vettel took the lead and victory.<\/p>\n

Vettel would take his statistically most dominant victory in 2013, the German took pole position, led every lap, scored the fastest lap, and won by more than 32.6 seconds; his third Grand Slam. With a nearly perfect start and good handling of the safety car situation, Fernando Alonso took second position from seventh on the grid.<\/p>\n

2014 was the start of the hybrid era, while as Mercedes did at most circuits that season with Hamilton winning from the following year issues with the car performance would cause head scratching Mercedes. Throughout the race, Hamilton would steadily increase his lead to thirteen seconds to take victory and regain the championship lead.<\/p>\n

The 2015 race exposed a weakness Mercedes had with the car, they were surprisingly off the pace with it being the only time that season that neither Hamilton or teammate Nico Rosberg finished on the podium or took pole. Vettel took victory ahead of his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo. In the middle part of the race Ferrari took control as Mercedes began to struggle and Valtteri Bottas in fifth experienced gearbox problems of his own, but was able to continue. On lap sixty, Grosjean ran wide and let Felipe Nasr move through into the final point scoring position, tenth.<\/p>\n

Rosberg took victory on his way to the title after fending off Hamilton who later lost track position to Ricciardo, the Red Bull driver struggling to go after the Mercedes. At the start as well there was a collision between Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg leading to the dangerous incident at the restart with a \u00a0Marshall was still on the track still picking up debris from the accident. After the restart Lewis Hamilton could not overtake Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo ahead of him.<\/p>\n

2017 saw the first wet race in Marina Bay proving to define the outcome of the championship, Vettel collided with teammate Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen and Max Verstappen at the start. That handed the championship to Hamilton as the German\u2019s season started to fall apart.<\/p>\n

It was the same story in 2018, Vettel losing out this time on strategy as Ferrari put him on ultrasoft tyres leaving him unable attack towards the end of the race. On the first lap the two Force India cars collided with Esteban Ocon ending up in the wall after hitting his teammate Perez, bringing out the Safety Car. Vettel\u2019s most recent win was in 2019 with him beating teammate Charles by two and a half seconds.<\/p>\n

Race & Circuit Guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
MAP IMAGE 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Round<\/td>\n17 of 22<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Race<\/td>\nFormula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2022<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Venue<\/td>\nMarina Bay Street Circuit, Downtown Core and Kallang<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Configuration<\/td>\n2018<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Circuit Length<\/td>\n5.063 km (3.146 mi)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Laps<\/td>\n61<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Race Distance<\/td>\n308.706 km (191.821 mi)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lap Record<\/td>\nRace<\/td>\n01:41.905 (Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-18, 2018)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Outright<\/td>\n01:36.015 (Sir Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, W08, 2018)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Most wins drivers<\/td>\nSebastian Vettel (5)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Most wins manufacture<\/td>\nMercedes (4)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Fast facts<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • The circuit holds a unique record of having at least one safety car appearance in every race to date. There has been a total of 21 safety car deployments in twelve races.<\/li>\n
  • Given the low-speed. high-downforce nature of street circuits, performance in Monaco is often used as a barometer for performance in Singapore. The statistics do not bear this out. Only four times (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) has the winning constructor in Monaco also won in Singapore.<\/li>\n
  • Pole position is vital in Singapore. Seven of the nine races have been won from pole. It has, however, proved possible to make up places on the Marina Bay Street Circuit<\/li>\n
  • There are few race tracks that take in so many landmarks and tourist attractions. The Marina Bay start\/finish straight is situated just by the Singapore Flyer, while the cars fly past City Hall, Supreme Court, and Parliament, Merlion Park, Esplanade Drive and over the Andersen Bridge.<\/li>\n
  • The 2008 Grand Prix hit a huge F1 milestone, as it was the 800th and first night race since the series\u2019 inception in 1950. It all looked pretty smooth at the time, with Fernando Alonso taking a surprising victory. But, of course, it later emerged his Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had been told to crash on purpose to aid Alonso\u2019s charge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    How Max Verstappen can win the title<\/h2>\n

    Max Verstappen can win the championship if he wins the race thus outscoring his nearest rival Charles Leclerc by a hundred and thirty-eight points after the race. Verstappen has a 125-point lead over teammate Perez, a 132-point lead over Russell and a 148-point lead over Sainz.<\/p>\n

    As a result, to win the title in Singapore he will need to outscore Leclerc by 22 points, Perez by 13 points, Russell by six points and lose no more than 10 points to Sainz.<\/p>\n

    Event timetable<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    \n

    Session<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Local (SST)<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    UK (BST)<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    \n

    Friday<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    P1<\/td>\n18:00-19:00<\/td>\n11:00-12:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    P2<\/td>\n21:00-22:00<\/td>\n14:00-15:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \n

    Saturday<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    P3<\/td>\n18:00-19:00<\/td>\n11:00-12:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Qualifying<\/td>\n21:00-22:00<\/td>\n14:00-15:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \n

    Sunday<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    Race<\/td>\n20:00<\/td>\n13:00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    What happened in 2019?<\/h2>\n

    Charles Leclerc continued his run of poles in Singapore, the Ferrari went two-tenths faster than teammate Sebastian Vettel. The Italian team were surprised given they were off the pace, but both Red Bull\u2019s and Mercedes appeared to struggle. Lewis Hamilton split the Ferrari\u2019s after Vettel was forced to abort his final lap after losing control three times.<\/p>\n

    Alex Albon\u2019s first qualifying with a direct comparison with Max Verstappen saw him six tenths off, a creditable performance after a difficult Friday in which he knocked off a front wing with one off-track moment.<\/p>\n

    The race was a fight between the two Ferrari\u2019s, but it became a question of which driver would come out on top. Vettel stopped first, which allowed him to get a second ahead of Hamilton. Leclerc was angry as he struggled to find the same pace as Vettel. The German took victory for the first time in over a year.<\/p>\n

    Key to Vettel\u2019s victory was the collision between Romain Grosjean and George \u00a0Russell, the Williams was turned into the wall exiting Stamford. Russell retired from the race, while the Frenchman made a stop for a front wing change.<\/p>\n

    The Haas driver got caught on the outside as but left his nose in the fight as Russell moved across to take up his track position. The impact pitched the Williams into a slide, which quickly resulted in a collision with the wall.<\/p>\n

    Hamilton struggled so much with his pace that Mercedes even ordered Valtteri Bottas, who had already stopped from fifth place, to back off the lap before Hamilton\u2019s pitstop. The gamble which could have changed his race never came, he re-joined fourth, after Bottas was instructed to make room for Hamilton.<\/p>\n

    Mercedes headed to Sochi for the first time in 2019 without a win, Ferrari had certainly got there act together. Although it was mathematically still possible the team knew they were needing to retain second in the constructors.<\/p>\n

    Race Result \u2013 1) S. Vettel, Ferrari, 01:58:33.667, \u00a02) C. Leclerc, Ferrari, +00:02.641, 3) M. Verstappen, Red Bull \u2013 Honda, +00:03.821<\/p>\n

    What to watch for?<\/h2>\n

    Max Verstappen has a chance to wrap the title up this weekend if he wins the race, the championship hasn\u2019t in the hybrid era been decided with five races to go. Red Bull as we have been saying since the summer break, operationally and performance wise are on a role ahead of Ferrari. But this is a street circuit where anything can happen.<\/p>\n

    Ferrari needs to start ironing out their mistakes now, though the feeling is that this championship is realistically over. They were strong in street races earlier in the season can they start getting back over the next month and a half to winning ways so that next season they aren\u2019t on the back foot.<\/p>\n

    Mercedes have struggled in Singapore throughout the hybrid era, but this season we have almost seen a role reserved, with them being strong at what has been their weaker circuits. The team I think have the feeling they can use the lessons they have already learned this season to be in the mix again, but it’s going to be hard as this is a street circuit.<\/p>\n

    Alpine is looking as if they have the upper hand in the midfield as I feel McLaren are fighting effectively single handily as Lando Norris is the only driver who has a grip on the car. The French manufacturer looks unlikely now to be able to go after Mercedes based on the fact Red Bull are winning all the races now.<\/p>\n

    The track has been resurfaced for this year to ease porpoising, this is a street circuit which means there naturally be bumps, drains etc. We know that this has been a difficult to set the cars set up like with any day-night race cooler temperatures are key for the night race is not overreaching in the twilight sessions.<\/p>\n

    We have not raced in Singapore for two years so drivers may need a bit of time to re learn and get comfortable on the circuit after two years away. But that should only take a couple of laps, Nicolas Latifi, Guanyu Zhou and Mick Schumacher we know have never raced in Singapore so they have a lot to learn about this circuit.<\/p>\n

    This is the most physically demanding races of the season drivers can lose up to 3kg of weight because of the humidity. The circuit requires a lot of concertation and in terms of time it\u2019s the longest race of the season, we often see safety cars leading in turn to multiple stops. There are opportunities to overtake as this isn\u2019t a narrow circuit, but drivers will need to take risks when overtaking, it should be easier with the regulation changes.<\/p>\n

    2019 vs 2018 Race Data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    \n

    <\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    P1 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    P2 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    P3 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Q1 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Q2 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Q3 Fastest<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Race Time<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Fastest Lap<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    \n

    2019<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		01:40.259<\/td>\n01:38.773<\/td>\n01:38.192<\/td>\n01:37.317<\/td>\n01:36.650<\/td>\n01:36.217<\/td>\n01:58:33.667<\/td>\n01:42.301<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \n

    Diff<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		+0.548<\/td>\n-0.740<\/td>\n-0.138<\/td>\n-0.836<\/td>\n-0.544<\/td>\n+0.202<\/td>\n+07:22.056<\/td>\n+0.604<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \n

    2018<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		01:39.711<\/td>\n01:38.699<\/td>\n01:38.054<\/td>\n01:38.153<\/td>\n01:37.194<\/td>\n01:36.015<\/td>\n01:51:11.611<\/td>\n01:41.905<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Tyres<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    White Hard (C3)<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Yellow Medium (C4)<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n

    		\n

    Red Soft (C5)<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Round seventeen sees F1 return to East Asia for the first time in two years and the city-state of Singapore. When the city state returned after a forty-year hiatus the Grand Prix became a round of the world championship and the sports first night race 2008, the streets of Marina Bay have given teams plenty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,22],"tags":[51,564,1101,1235,1236,1584,1835,1836,1837],"class_list":["post-11103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-prixview","tag-51","tag-downtown-core","tag-kallang","tag-marina-bay","tag-marina-bay-street-circuit","tag-prixview","tag-singapore","tag-singapore-gp","tag-singapore-grand-prix"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}