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With the European leg of the Formula One season finished, the Singapore Grand Prix kick-starts the back end of the year.
Recent races have seen a Ferrari renaissance as they used their strengths to win in Belgium and Italy, with Mercedes throwing their might at the race to try to stop them, but to no avail.Despite that, Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton still maintain a vice-like grip on both championships, with Hamilton holding a 63-point advantage over team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who is now confirmed for another year, and they expect normal service to resume this afternoon.
As one of the series’ three races to be held at night, Singapore poses a unique challenge for every aspect of Formula One. It’s the longest race on the calendar and often takes longer than the two-hour race time limit. With 23 corners, it is also a true test of strength and endurance for the drivers.
Couple that with extreme heat and humidity, where temperatures in the cars’ cockpits will exceed 60°C, and drivers often lose 3kg of weight in the two-hour marathon.
The night race dishes out an extra challenge as the drivers and team personnel all have to flip their schedules. They’ll wake up at midday, have lunch at 7pm and go to bed at 5am. The race starts at 8pm.
However, it’s not just the people who feel the demands of the night. It’s a track where anything can, and usually does, happen.
Predicting how a team will fare is notoriously difficult.
Mercedes unexpectedly struggled in 2015, with Nico Rosberg finishing 25 seconds behind winner Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari imploded in spectacular fashion just two years later when Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen collided at the start of the race, wiping them and Max Verstappen out after just one corner.
They expect to struggle today as well, with the slow, twisting circuit in no way similar to the high-speed tracks of Spa and Monza.
“The race in Singapore doesn’t look as good on paper for us,” said Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who has won back-to-back races.
“Because of the very different circuit layout, featuring lots of slow corners and fewer straights, it might be a more difficult weekend for us,” Leclerc said.
For Red Bull and Mercedes, though, it’s a circuit that suits their aerodynamic packages so they are hoping for strong results.
“Singapore is a great track,” said Verstappen. “The track is very demanding – it’s hot, it’s physical and you sweat a lot. It’s also a race where we tend to do better than, say, Monza and Spa.
“Overtaking is very tricky, so qualifying is the key.”
The Singapore race is often one of attrition, and getting to the finish line is a result in itself.
It’s the only race to have seen the safety car in every race it’s ever held – 18 appearances in 11 grands prix.
That makes it a critical race for teams to get right, with everything to play for should a rival drop out.
For Leclerc, that’s the aim of the game as he sits just three points behind Verstappen in the championship. The pair are battling for third place and every point matters. The action gets under way at 2.10pm South African time.
