F1 Talk: Will Singapore Shake up the Championship again?

This weekend is the Singapore Grand Prix, one of the highlights of the F1 year. It’s the toughest, the longest and the trickiest race of the season and with the memories of the championship changing moment that happened this time last year, will Singapore produce more drama this time round?

Lewis Hamilton has a 30 point lead over Sebastian Vettel heading into this weekend and he may need that advantage because Ferrari are expected to have the best car on the streets of Singapore. The speed they showed last year in qualifying and the speed they have shown this year means that a non-Ferrari win will be a surprise.

It’s one of Vettel’s favourite circuits on the calendar having taken four pole positions and four wins at the Marina Bay track. He’s got a nice groove around the 5.063KM track and will be looking to find that rhythm to take a much needed victory.

As for Hamilton, it should be a case of damage limitation. It was meant to be the same case last year but we all know what happened on the run down to turn one. Don’t expect the same thing to happen again. The Brit will be looking at a podium and will probably find himself fighting with the Red Bulls as well as his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. Singapore has without a doubt been Mercedes’ worst track in the hybrid era and even when they were dominant in 2014-2016 the margins were very close and the two wins they took didn’t come easy.

The Marina Bay Street Circuit has had some minor tweaks over it’s 10 year history with F1 and this year sees the track being shortened by two meters as turns 16/17 has been straightened up a bit. New asphalt has been laid down around Turn 1, between Turns 5 and 7, Turns 15 and 17, and around Turn 23. which will help the cars find grip up in those areas in the dry but will make it very slippery if there’s rain around.

Pirelli have brought the hypersoft, ultrasoft and soft tyres to this weekend’s event. Interestingly, Ferrari have only brought one set of the soft tyres whereas Mercedes have brought three. It means Ferrari won’t run the soft tyre at all in practice because they must keep a set of soft tyres for the race.

Are they already putting themselves on the back foot? Or at least giving themselves less strategical options. Even though it’s quite hard to overtake at Singapore, it is doable and the tyre wear is quite high, especially on the rear tyres. Mercedes and Red Bull might be able to do a one stop strategy whereas Ferrari might be forced to do a two stopper.

That said, track position can negate any tyre advantage that you may have and being in the dirty air won’t help at all, no matter what tyres you are on. What I’m trying to say is that if Ferrari qualify at the front and are 1-2 after the first lap then they should be able to control the race.

One thing you might see this weekend is the teams reverting to an older engine because Singapore isn’t a massively power sensitive track. This will save millage on the Spec 3 (or third engine for the rest of the season) that most teams took at Spa. It’s unlikely that you will see too many grid penalties as well because it’s difficult to overtake and it’s not worth starting at the back just to have a new engine because it’s not a power circuit.

Can Red Bull be in the game? Max Verstappen qualified second last year and who knows if the would have gone on to take victory. But, Red Bull have stopped developing this year’s car because 2019 will see some small aerodynamic regulation changes but also because they will be going from Renault power to Honda power. I don’t think they will be as much of a threat, compared to say Monaco this year.

Whilst Mercedes and Ferrari have been laying punches on each other all year, Red Bull have started to chill out on no mans land. Verstappen still hasn’t taken a pole position and if he is to become the youngest pole sitter in F1 then he must do it before the end of the season. I believe Mexico will be his best chance.

Expect to see Ricciardo and Verstappen fighting the Mercedes drivers and it will be crucial for Hamilton that he finishes ahead of the pair as every point becomes and feels more important.

The big off track talk coming into the weekend is that Charles Leclerc will be driving for Ferrari in 2019. Despite the recent talk of the move being “back on” it was still a surprise to me. An even bigger shock was that Kimi Raikkonen will not retire and will instead drive with Sauber.

Confused? I was. The Finn doesn’t show that he adores F1 but the decision to stay must mean that he still loves the sport (at least the racing side of things). He’s on a two year deal so should he see out his two years then he will become F1’s most experienced driver ever, beating Rubens Barrichello’s record of 326 F1 appearances.

Money might be part of it but maybe Ferrari are keeping him in their sights just in case Raikkonen wanted to go to a rival team or in case Leclerc turns out to be poor. I’m looking forward to a great season next year with Raikkonen and it’s brilliant for Sauber as the publicity he brings will be the most they’ve ever had. I dearly hope he can win a race this season so that it doesn’t say his last win was in 2013, Melbourne in a Lotus.

It’s quite staggering how Raikkonen hasn’t won in his second spell at Ferrari and even crazier that he’s Ferrari’s last world champion. Will he still play the number two role for the rest of the year? Ultimately it’s up to him but it will be intriguing to see what happens of he’s ahead of Vettel on the track.

As for Leclerc, it is a massive congratulations to him and he is the big winner from all of this. He will be Ferrari’s youngest driver for over 50 years and I can’t wait to see how he does. His speed is a big strength – the Monegasque driver has shown that throughout his career, including Formula Two and Formula One. To those who think he will struggle, well I think, if you’re talented enough and have the speed then you should be okay.

He will be under massive pressure but he will have to be a complete disaster for him to not be with Ferrari in the coming years. If he underperforms, he can say he is still learning and is up against a four-time (maybe five) world champion but if he can match or beat Vettel, his stock will go through the roof and who knows if he can become world champion already!

It’s a risk from Ferrari and I thought they wouldn’t do it but I’m glad they have. We still get to see Raikkonen on the grid and we now get another young gun in a front running seat.

The game of musical chairs still isn’t over with plenty of seats to fill. It looks more and more likely that Esteban Ocon won’t have an F1 drive next year which is ridiculous considering he is probably better than half of the grid yet he won’t be driving. How can that be? The state of F1 is one reason why as some teams want drivers with financial backing over raw talent. I hope Ocon can find himself somewhere.

• 2008: Fernando Alonso
• 2009: Lewis Hamilton
• 2010: Fernando Alonso
• 2011: Sebastian Vettel
• 2012: Sebastian Vettel
• 2013: Sebastian Vettel
• 2014: Lewis Hamilton
• 2015: Sebastian Vettel
• 2016: Nico Rosberg
• 2017: Lewis Hamilton

Above is a list of the Singapore Grand Prix winners. Notice anything about it? Apart from 2016, every winner had already been a world champion. It surely means Vettel, Hamilton or Raikkonen will win this weekend. It’s not going to be Alonso, unless there’s a very nicely timed safety car and tonnes of carnage every lap!

Vettel says that his only enemy is himself, if he can overcome that, expect some more singing on the team radio come Sunday.