George Russell will start the Singapore Grand Prix from the back of the grid, adding another blow to his championship hopes. In Sepang on Sunday, the Mercedes driver retired after a late power unit failure, allowing teammate Kimi Antonelli to extend his lead to eighty-four points.<\/p>\n
Russell will take on a new power unit of the old specification on Friday in Singapore, which will see him exceed the season allocation of four, therefore incurring a penalty that will drop him to the rear of the grid. Russell was expected to have a new power unit at the next race in Austin later this month, which would include an upgrade.<\/p>\n
Team principal Toto Wolff said, confirming the news: “That is particularly frustrating given the way [Russell] drove last weekend and the result he deserved to be fighting for. Unfortunately, these things are part of the sport, and our focus now is on giving him the best possible car and opportunities to fight back through the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin would have been the better place for the power unit change, which will also include a power unit upgrade, because the circuit should favour the teams\u2019 straight-line speed advantage and overtaking is easier.<\/p>\n
Russell will run the older, previous-specification aerodynamic package. Images from the pitlane show the two distinct vehicle floors actively being prepared with the different aerodynamic packages side by side. The penalty will only apply to Sunday\u2019s Grand Prix, and not Saturday\u2019s sprint.<\/p>\n
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord says they are unsure what caused their latest issue in Malaysia with Russell. He said in Mercedes’ race debrief video, \u201cOur investigation so far, we’ve got the car back, we’ve been able to do a first inspection; it’s clearly a mechanical failure on the power unit side. Exactly what the root cause is we still need to determine, but the consequence was clear for all to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has described last weekend as the team’s “worst weekend of the season”, mainly due to Russell’s retirement, which he stated was “not acceptable”. In terms of outright pace, Mercedes were surprisingly outperformed by Red Bull.<\/p>\n
Last weekend the team brought their biggest upgrades since Montreal in May, however, they were comfortably beaten by Max Verstappen, with deputy team principal Bradley Lord putting it down to multiple factors.<\/p>\n
Lord explained to Sky Sports, \u201cThe combination potentially of updates, track temperature and track surface caused an interaction and a set of behaviours that meant the car was not in its usual happy state, that the drivers were having to turn the car on the throttle in the slow corners.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s not an easy thing to unpick. It’s a bit of a 3D problem that we need to work through and then figure out exactly what steps we take going forward to make sure that we’ve got the base understanding that we need to understand that the update is working well and that we’re heading in the right direction in our development, not just for this year’s car but for next year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton has urged Ferrari to improve power unit performance to give him a shot at a record-breaking eighth championship. His first Grand Prix win for Ferrari in Barcelona in June gave hope he could launch a 2026 title challenge, but an underwhelming run after the summer break saw his deficit to Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli grow beyond a hundred points.<\/p>\n
Hamilton ended a six-race podium drought by finishing third at Sepang on Sunday, but a poor starting tyre choice cost him the chance to use his pace to challenge Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for victory. Speaking to Sky Sports, he explained why he still had confidence in Ferrari, \u201cI think fundamentally we’ve got a great car, and that’s down to an amazing group of people back at the factory, who are really intelligent and have made the right decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I’ve said before, we have been innovators this year. We’ve had things on the car that everyone else has often followed. It’s just that we know we’re down on power, and that’s something that we just live with. We have to catch up for next year. We live with that deficit for the rest of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton heads into the Singapore weekend targeting victory in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix. He knows, however, that despite the dominant success he and Mercedes enjoyed throughout the 2010s, Singapore has statistically been one of the team’s most challenging venues. The seven-time world champion is hopeful Ferrari can deliver the pace required to fight at the front and close the gap to his former team<\/p>\n
The last week was dominated by speculation over Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s future, after former Red Bull chief Christian Horner had expressed an interest in the position. Ferrari publicly backed Vasseur ahead of the event, while Hamilton criticised a “negative narrative” around the team.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he thought a strong overall result, which saw teammate Charles Leclerc finish a place behind him in fourth, would reduce negativity, Hamilton added: “I hope it’s not too negative chatter after Malaysia. We still got good points with third and fourth.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lando Norris is hopeful McLaren has found a fix for the baffling speed loss in Baku and Sepang. The world champion has struggled for pace in the last two races and qualified fifth for both races; in Baku was taken out in the Franco Colapinto incident, and a late mistake meant he finished ninth on Sunday in Sepang.<\/p>\n
Norris, who has won twice this season, claimed his McLaren was suffering from a \u201cpainful\u201d straight-line speed deficit that is costing him around two-tenths of a second per lap. Ahead of this weekend, Norris suggested that McLaren has made progress in discovering the cause of the puzzling issue.<\/p>\n
Speaking in the press conference ahead of this weekend, the Englishman said, \u201cThere was a fair few [learnings] both from my side, from us as a team from like what happened in the race, but also just general things from a car point of view and what we need to do a better job in, and how can we get back to the same level as we were in the previous few – Budapest, Zandvoort, Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team have been working very hard; we’ve all worked very hard to understand what we could learn from last weekend, what we can and need to do better in. There was some obvious ones, such as the straight-line speed and the issues I’ve been having with the car, which are obvious ones, and obviously more technical ones from, how can we unlock more potential from the car to get back to the performance that we had previously.\u201d<\/p>\n
However Norris believed that the problems were more apparent due to certain characteristics at recent circuit layouts. Singapore places slightly less emphasis on straight-line speed performance. He goes into the weekend hoping that the performances come back, but hoping to do a better job regardless.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FP1 saw Max Verstappen make a strong start to the weekend with a 37.520, which put the Dutchman almost four tenths faster than George Russell. The Mercedes drive managing to split the two Red Bulls as the Englishman went four tenths faster than Isack Hadjar. Kimi Antonelli was fifth, six tenths behind Russell as he went over two tenths behind Charles Leclerc.<\/p>\n
FP2 Leclerc was fastest, setting a 37.528, a tenth faster than Isack Hadjar. Hadjar put himself almost four hundredths faster than Lando Norris; the world champion split the Red Bulls after going over a tenth faster than Max Verstappen.\u00a0 Verstappen was half a tenth faster than Lewis Hamilton, who looked equally competitive on his race simulation.<\/p>\n
FP3 Antonelli was fastest with a 36.302, which put him over a quarter of a second faster than Verstappen. Hadjar took third ahead of Russell by half a tenth, but both drivers were more than half a second behind Antonelli, who appeared to have found a nice rhythm for qualifying.<\/p>\n
In qualifying, Verstappen took his first pole of the season as he beat Hamilton by just under three tenths, taking Ford\u2019s first pole since Magny-Cours in 1999.\u00a0 Hamilton managed to split the Red Bulls as he went almost a quarter of a second faster than Hadjar.<\/p>\n
Verstappen won a chaotic and rain-delayed race; the Red Bull driver converted his pole into a two-second victory, ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli. The Dutchman has looked on fire all weekend, but victory was not simple, with weather, safety cars, delayed starts and restarts.<\/p>\n
Russell retired with a power unit failure, significant and could prove decisive in the championship battle, much as Hamilton\u2019s engine failure in Malays ia in 2016 gave teammate Nico Rosberg a crucial advantage in the title race.<\/p>\n
The seven-time champion drove a brilliant race and looked to have lost out at the delayed start and started fifteenth when the race finally got going after a storm and a FIA software failure.<\/p>\n
Hamilton fought through the field from eighteenth after dropping down at the restart, then moved to third after that gamble on the start forced Ferrari into an early stop to go to inters, as the track wasn\u2019t ready for soft tyres. When it was Hamilton\u2019s turn, he showed blistering pace and passed Isack Hadjar late on to claim third.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Round seventeen concludes this first triple header under the lights of Marina Bay in Singapore. The sport\u2019s original night race has established itself as one of the highlights around three miles of Marina Bay, with a tricky high-speed street circuit in the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
The Marina Bay Circuit has been on the calendar since 2008 and is one of the standout tracks. The race takes place at night with breathtaking views of the skyline as cars make their way through the tight and twisty circuit. Drivers can lose around 3kg in body weight after each race due to the amount they sweat.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest things this weekend could be a four-team fight for the win as the top four teams have all won at least one race in the first year of the sport’s new regulations, with Mercedes’ early-season dominance a thing of the past despite the Silver Arrows’ continued command of both world championship races.<\/p>\n
The last time four teams won races in the opening year of a new regulations cycle was 2009. That was followed by one of the great title fights in 2010, raising hopes that the current competitive picture could set the stage for another classic championship battle next season.<\/p>\n
Mercedes is expected to be strong, and it\u2019s beginning to look difficult for George Russell, eighty-four points behind teammate Kimi Antonelli. Red Bull and Verstappen after he won the race last weekend. The team brought major upgrades two races ago, and improvements to its overall performance have been evident.<\/p>\n
Russell, who suffered a major blow to his championship hopes after retiring last time out, will be looking to maximise the points on offer across the weekend. Reliability has been a weakness for Mercedes so far this season, and the team have already confirmed Russell will take a penalty to consign him to the back of the grid in Singapore, so the impact will extend beyond his retirement on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mercedes are expected to be strong, while Ferrari are quick in cornering speed. Hamilton has won four times here, so he could be a threat. However their conclusion from Sepang is that the upgrades didn\u2019t deliver what they expected in Sepang, with the expected three-tenths improvement.<\/p>\n
McLaren’s Norris and Piastri fell under the radar and struggled for pace in Malaysia. But could be stronger around this more technical street circuit and they won in Budapest and Zandvoort.<\/p>\n
Verstappen will also likely be a factor at the front for resurgent Red Bull as he finally looks to win the Singapore Grand Prix. Marina Bay is the one long-standing track on the current calendar (Madrid, where Verstappen finished second last month, only joined the schedule this year) that the Dutchman has yet to win at.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has qualified and finished second in each of the last two years, so has certainly been knocking on the door to do so. Red Bull will hope their recent performance gains elsewhere transfer to the unique demands of Singapore.<\/p>\n
Ferrari also had a decent weekend but they were left to rue another bad strategy call on Sunday, with Leclerc told Motorsport.com, \u201cI was aligned with the team. It was a close call as it is always in these conditions, and we’ll speak whether to split the cars in those conditions is the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Singapore Grand Prix has been declared a heat-hazard race, the second weekend in a row that the designation has been used and the fourth time this year. The definition allows teams to fit cooling devices to their cars that pump liquid through a vest worn by the driver to manage temperatures in the cockpit.<\/p>\n
A heat hazard is an official status for an event where it is forecast that temperatures will exceed 31C at some point during the race. It was first introduced in 2025. The race in the city state has always been one of the most physically and mentally demanding weekends for drivers and teams, with this year the added pressure of the final sprint weekend.<\/p>\n
Temperatures in the city are always in the 31-33C region across the race weekend, with high humidity and a chance of rain every day. The race is held at night, but temperatures remain in the region of 30C even after dark.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the city has been blanketed in toxic haze, as Indonesia is facing one of its worst wildfire seasons, with around one million hectares of land burned so far this year.<\/p>\n
A cooling kit is not mandatory, but any driver who chooses not to use it has to carry 5kg of ballast in their car to ensure he does not have a competitive advantage. The system uses a cooling tank and pump, usually situated in the car’s nose, that delivers a cooled liquid, such as glycol, through a system of pipes in a fireproof top worn under their overalls.<\/p>\n
Some teams and drivers prefer not to use the system because of two key compromises.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to keep the liquid cool enough for long enough so that it lasts for an entire Grand Prix – a problem exacerbated in Singapore because it is the longest race of the year. Some drivers find the cooling top uncomfortable in the tight confines of the cockpit.<\/p>\n
If the liquid cannot be kept cool, it reverts to car temperature, which is considerably higher than ambient. It is not unusual for temperatures in an F1 cockpit to rise above 40C.<\/p>\n
Following the long heatwave in Europe over the summer, the FIA announced that teams to could be granted up to \u00a338,000 if they could make a system that keeps the liquid cool for an entire Grand Prix, and a further \u00a357,000 if they could make the top comfortable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sixth and final Sprint event of the year this weekend to conclude the first flyaway triple header of the sport’s busy 2026 season run in. It’s also the only twilight sprint race of the season, but it\u2019s surprising that it\u2019s taking place in Singapore, a place not known to be good for overtaking.<\/p>\n
When they were introduced, they were designed for circuits deemed to be particularly good for racing so as to justify the addition of a 100km race on the Saturday as an appetiser to the main Sunday Grand Prix. That has generally continued to be the case in the selection of Sprint venues up to this year, with perhaps the inclusion of Imola in 2022 the surprise exception.<\/p>\n
Street tracks, which by nature traditionally aren’t as overtaking-friendly as conventional permanent tracks, have generally not featured on that yearly list. Azerbaijan did host a Sprint in 2023, but Baku’s street track features the longest straight on the calendar and so allows passing. Montreal and Miami are hybrid street-permanent circuits, as is Melbourne, which will host next year<\/p>\n
Singapore falls more into the category of a conventional street track – there are no long straights of note and overtaking opportunities are severely limited around the confined, twisty layout.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also to say this was not a reaction to the US-Israel War with Iran to ensure a twilight sprint race as it was announced late last year.<\/p>\n
But it could be giving us two qualifying sessions; with Monaco being a sprint next year, it could be a huge test. Monaco and Singapore are regarded as two of the highest-stakes qualifying sessions of the season, where one mistake can wreck your weekend, and the track constantly improves in dry conditions.<\/p>\n
This year there will be two such sessions – Sprint Qualifying on Friday followed by Grand Prix Qualifying on Saturday – which means double the qualifying challenge and, therefore, double the jeopardy for drivers.<\/p>\n
Sprint weekend is all about confidence, and the only practice session is always busy, but drivers will only have an hour in unrepresentative conditions before sprint qualifying under the lights. Conditions then will be slightly cooler meaning the cars, engines and tyres won’t necessarily behave the same in different conditions.<\/p>\n
Parc-Ferme conditions mean teams can’t then touch the cars again for Saturday’s Sprint, which takes place during the late afternoon like practice<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The FIA has revealed its investigation findings into the \u201csoftware bug\u201d that caused havoc at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. The software issue with the engine mapping caused chaos as cars crawled around the track on the formation lap after a lengthy delay to last weekend.<\/p>\n
The original start had to be abandoned while the FIA issued teams with a new software code to be installed into the cars. In total, the race began over an hour and a half later than scheduled. The chaos was slammed by drivers, with GPDA director Carlos Sainz saying F1 \u201cneeds to have a hard look at\u201d itself in the wake of the unprecedented events.<\/p>\n
Its report concludes that \u201csome cars running on low engine RPM in certain circuit sectors where a 250kW power reduction was applied experienced a loss of power beyond the original intent and that could not be recovered in those sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, the configuration established for the Sepang event will be reinstated for the Singapore Grand Prix should similar weather conditions be expected. Additionally, a further update to the wet weather software will be released for the United States Grand Prix on October 25.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also called for new ways of testing, strengthening software and verification of power units and electronic control units (ECUs) to be carried out. The software upgrades were tested at Spa and Zandvoort earlier this season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Aston Martin had their strongest weekend of the season last weekend with Fernando Alonso\u2019s storming drive to eighth place, and the hopes are high for another positive week to come.<\/p>\n
Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack says the team are now \u201cquite confident\u201d that they can have another good showing in Singapore. There\u2019s a simple reason for that, the Marina Bay layout has fewer long straights and is less power-dependent than some of the tracks that preceded Sepang, and also some of those coming up.<\/p>\n
Speaking ahead of this weekend, Krack said, \u201cI think this is a track that should suit us decently, and it’s also a Sprint, which brings its challenges as well. We have the weather unknown always here, so I think it can be an opportunity. But you must not do any mistakes. You know that I’m preaching always the same things, because they are always applying. But we are quite confident for this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Krack hinted, the Sprint format will also add an element of randomness with the lack of time to get the set-up right: \u201cI think Fernando was first here last year in FP1, and was fourth in FP2, and we did not have the fourth car or the first car. So I think this is a track when you have to go into Qualifying, you have not much practice before. You have to get it right straight away. There are not many support series, so the track will evolve a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krack believes that the analysis of there weekend in Malaysia suggested that the surface roughness, lower and limited grip pushed everyone to lower top speed. This has been one of the teams strengths this season, and they go into this weekend boosted by the strong Sepang race after a run of retirements and uncompetitive outings.<\/p>\n
Alonso eighth s not much to get excited about for a guy who has seen and done so much, but Alonso himself admitted that in the context of 2026 Sepang was a welcome result. The two-time champion added, \u201cObviously still far away from what we want to achieve. But to be in the points and to have a competitive pace in the race, it was encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole weekend was a bit better, but it’s still what it is. And this year has been painful and still a little bit struggling with the pace and the speed and the straights.\u201d But Alonso says that the car hasn\u2019t got better and they didn\u2019t change anything, further suggesting that it was circuit-specific.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Valtteri Bottas took an unconventional way of travelling from Sepang to Marina Bay, a 260-mile bike ride. A flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore often nudges just over an hour duration, Bottas opted for a slightly unconventional journey instead.<\/p>\n
The Cadillac driver posted daily updates of the journey to his Strava account. On day one, he cycled 56.60km, before logging 161km on day two along the coast past Malacca City. On day three, he did another 161km and then a final 40.16km to finish the route on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media on Thursday, he said \u201cI obviously wouldn’t do it if I knew it hurt my preparation. So, for sure, I’m pretty good. The amount of sweat in those days was quite impressive. But yeah, definitely, you get used to the heat the more time you spend in the heat, so that can help me hopefully a little bit [this weekend].\u201d<\/p>\n
While Bottas cycled solo, he said he had a recovery vehicle following him to ensure he did not hit any trouble.<\/p>\n
Asked what his best experiences were, Bottas told the media on Thursday: “Saw some snakes, which I was a little bit worried about, but actually they were pretty chill. They were just doing their thing. I saw one cobra. Saw one python just crossing the path in front of me. Saw some of those big lizards that you also see here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne was on the path, I had to jump over it with a bike. So I saw it like last minute. Got chased by one dog. Got stuck behind a group of cows on a small track. Eventually they moved away. What was the wildest part was the riding at night in the jungle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bottas revealed that it started as a joke with his wife, Olympic cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, after Sepang was added to the calendar due to the war in Iran. They checked the distance and timings, deciding that it would work and set off the Sunday after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Bottas intentionally planned the two longest days on Monday and Tuesday so he could have a recovery ride on Wednesday. He has another rest day Thursday before Friday, which features a one-hour practice session and then qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race.<\/p>\n
As things stand, it\u2019s not currently on the calendar for 2027, but on Sunday Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim indicated Malaysia is interested in bringing the Grand Prix back on a more permanent basis.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The latest news and analysis behind the headlines ahead of this weekend\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix, looking at the biggest talking points going into this race at Marina Bay Street Circuit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2209],"tags":[2339,198,2348,2389,348,2325,565,618,709,712,781,814,2367,1131,1235,1236,1287,1290,1298,1341,1835,1836,1837,1843,2223,2031,2105,2210,2211],"class_list":["post-16542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-welcome-the-grand-prix","tag-2339","tag-aston-martin","tag-aston-martin-honda","tag-bradley-lord","tag-cadillac","tag-cadillac-ferrari","tag-downtown-core-and-kallang","tag-engine-penalties","tag-ferrari","tag-fia","tag-fred-vasseur","tag-george-russell","tag-heat-hazard","tag-lando-norris","tag-marina-bay","tag-marina-bay-street-circuit","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-mercedes","tag-mercedes","tag-mike-krack","tag-singapore","tag-singapore-gp","tag-singapore-grand-prix","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-talking-points","tag-toto-wolff","tag-valtteri-bottas","tag-welcome-to-the-grand-prix","tag-wttgp"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16542","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16542"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16545,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16542\/revisions\/16545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}