The Singapore Grand Prix joined the F1 calendar in 2008 as the original night race. Set on the streets of Marina Bay with close walls, high heat and humidity and very little room for error, it’s gained a reputation as one of the toughest challenges the drivers face all year. Up until 2023, that came down to it also being one of the longest grands prix time-wise, but with the removal of the unique grandstand section or turns 16-19 and replacement with a 400m straight two years ago, plus the now four DRS zones, the speeds have increased and the lap times have decreased but the challenge remains largely the same.
Characteristic Considerations
Heat Hazard
Arguably the toughest part of the Singapore weekend is the temperatures the drivers will be exposed to in the cockpit, which not even the overnight session times can give them relief from. The cockpit can reach up to 60°C and the high humidity, often at 70-80% even at night, means their sweat does not evaporate away as efficiently and can therefore serve to drive the temperatures up even further.
Over the grand prix, which last year ran to approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, the drivers can lose 2-3 kilograms of water weight and without sufficient replenishment or training to cope with this, their cognitive and physical abilities can wane. Training for it and experiencing it are also two different things, making it even tougher on rookies, of which there are four in the field this year yet to contest this race.
At a circuit where concentration is demanded over the whole lap, 62 times around during the race, it can be a real slog behind the wheel with mistakes and incidents often aplenty.
But this year, even with cars yet to get out on track, the race director has declared a ‘heat hazard’ given that the FIA’s official weather service is predicting the heat index to rise above 31°C. This is in accordance with Article 26.19 of the Sporting Regulations – a rule added following the incredible heat at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix – which allows the teams and drivers to employ new cooling systems when such a hazard has been declared.
The teams have to fit all components of the ‘Driver Cooling Systems’ to the car and the drivers have the choice to use their personal cooling equipment, such as special fireproofs fitted with cooling tubes created by Chillout Motorsports. If they opt not to, the team has to fit a 0.5kg ballast to the car to equalise the weight with a driver who has chosen to, and in line with this a ‘Heat Hazard Mass Increase’ of 5kg is applied to the minimum weight for the grand prix, and 2kg for free practice or qualifying sessions.
Some drivers have already tested this system, and their personal cooling equipment during free practice sessions or even full grands prix earlier this year, and the verdict has been mixed. However, Singapore is a whole different ballgame heat-wise, so we could see an increased adoption of them this weekend.
Safety cars & neutralisations
The consequence of the physical and mental challenge of Singapore is that incidents are often frequent over the weekend, and the grand prix specifically. It means safety cars and other neutralisations are a key factor for strategists to consider, even more so than usual given that last year’s race in Marina Bay was the first without a safety car in its history.
The timing of these safety cars can be pivotal – in a positive or negative sense – for a driver’s race and typically they’ve happened more frequently during the pit window as drivers start to push more knowing they’re boxing soon, or defend more from rivals who may have already boxed.
Given that, until last year, Singapore had a perfect 100% safety car rate the teams will have to decide whether they plan their strategies according to the historic frequency, with the idea that this year could see this record continue with last year as an anomaly, or whether they see last year as a shift in this pattern.
Bumps, kerbs, and track changes
As a classic street track, which is open to public traffic from turn 5 around to turn 16 for the rest of the year, bumps are common and can be incredibly unsettling to an F1 car – especially in this current generation that rely so heavily on the floor for their downforce.
Overcoming them, and the high kerbs, without striking the floor to an excessive level could require the teams to raise their ride heights and that can compromise performance, as Red Bull found out in 2023.
But the surface itself is also a factor – especially in the rain. It’s low in abrasion and grip to begin with and littered with road markings, which means it can become slippery when wet and even more so when the rubber that’s been laid down gets washed away.
Ahead of this year’s event, sections of the circuit have also been resurfaced: turns 2-3, 6-7, 9, 14-16, 16-19 and some repairs have also been done in localised patches. The effect of track evolution will likely be even more significant in these areas as a result.
Pit lane speed change
The other change that’s been made at the circuit for this year is that the pit lane has been widened by one metre, and consequently the FIA have increased the pit lane speed limit from 60km/h to 80km/h. We’ve seen this done at other events earlier this year, such as the Dutch Grand Prix, and the impact on strategy could be sizeable.
The 20km/h increase means the time a pitstop takes from the start to the end of the pit lane is predicted to drop by around 6 seconds, taking the average pit loss of 29.6s (based on last year’s stops) to approximately 24s this year. It will make extra stops, if needed, less costly but equally stopping under a safety car all the more advantageous, and again less costly even if a driver has already boxed.
Low average speed = high downforce
Alongside Monaco, Singapore has one of the lowest average speeds over the lap all year. It means teams prioritise high downforce setups, which as we’ve seen already at the Hungaroring for example, will favour some teams more than others.
Aston Martin were standout performers at that Budapest race, finishing P5 and P7 owing to their AMR25’s strength while configured in a high downforce setup. But losers at that grand prix were teams like Red Bull or Williams, who lacked performance and, in Red Bull’s case, suffered their worst average result all year. For Red Bull, and Max Verstappen, who arrive in Singapore off the back of two consecutive victories this weekend will be the real test of their recent progress and whether it can persist at a completely different circuit in terms of that downforce level and average speed to Monza or Baku.
The Compounds
Pirelli have kept their compound selection for this weekend consistent with last year – at the soft end, but not the softest. The C3 will be the hard, the C4 the medium and the C5 the soft. It’s a decision made with thermal stress in mind – which will be the tyres’ biggest challenge and the driving force for degradation – but also the forces exerting on the tyres over the lap, which Pirelli felt were too great in combination with the high temperatures for their new, softest C6 tyre.
As was seen last year, Pirelli are anticipating the medium and hard to be the main race tyres with a one-stop likely to be the most popular strategy, unless weather or safety cars throw a spanner in the works! Making that work will require tyre management, especially in traffic, and by doing so last year Lewis Hamilton managed to extend the hard tyre for a 45 lap stint. It will make qualifying and track position critical as, even with four DRS zones, overtaking often isn’t easy.
Expect teams to retain some soft tyres for race day though, as they could prove useful for drivers wanting extra grip at lights out or for a late safety car period. New softs will have a large performance difference to, albeit perhaps well-managed, old mediums or hards which could open opportunities for those drivers who have some remaining for race day, for example as a result of not advancing to Q3.
The Weather
The weather could be a major factor at play over the entirety of this weekend, even aside from the heat and humidity. Given Singapore’s proximity to the equator, the weather is highly unpredictable and changeable, and this weekend there looks to be rain and even thunderstorms on the horizon.
Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images.
All three days of on track running are expected to be cloudy with a 20-40% chance of rain and peak temperatures of around 32-33°C. FP1 and FP3 are day sessions, so are usually warmer, but even when the sun goes down there’s little relief from the heat and the temperature will only fall by a degree or so.
If we have a wet start to the grand prix with no rain falling the track should dry up quickly and finding the crossover to slicks is tricky. With how low in grip the track is and how much it can vary around the lap with the tarmac variation and road markings, driver feedback will be crucial in finding the sweet spot.
The Singapore Grand Prix begins with Free Practice 1 at 17:30pm local time on Friday October 3rd. The rest of the timings for the weekend are as follows (all in local time):
- FP1: Friday 3rd October, 17:30-18:30
- FP2: Friday 3rd October, 21:00-22:00
- FP3: Saturday 4th October, 17:30-18:30
- Qualifying: Saturday 4th October, 21:00-22:00
- Singapore Grand Prix: Sunday 5th October, 20:00
