What to expect from the 2018 Singore F1 GP?
The exciting race in Italy 2 weeks ago didn't go as we all had foresee. Who would have thought that Sebastian Vettel would make a mistake again?
Mercedes showed Ferrari how teamwork should be done. Lewis Hamilton again showed his driving skill and drove a flawless race to get his 68th victory in F1.
The 10th Singapore Grand Prix is being raced this Sunday. In Italy Ferrari showed they still have the quickest car. But Hamilton and Mercedes made less mistakes overall. That's why they lead the drivers and constructors championship. Mentally the upcoming races are harder on Mercedes, because they can only lose, while Ferrari only can gain.
This week the big news got out that Kimi Raikkonen will leave Ferrari and that the now 20 year old rookie Charles Leclerc will drive for the red team. In recent history it's the first time that Ferrari gives a race seat to a rookie F1 driver who never had won a podium in F1.
Next season the 3 top teams will have 3 young dogs as drivers, which will theoretically, take more risks and give us spectators more action to watch. At the start of the season the average age of the 2018 top team drivers (Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes) was 29.8. Next season the average age of these 6 drivers will be 26,3.
Next stop is the toughest and longest Grand Prix (in time) on the calendar. Last year the 300 km race took over 2 hours and 3 minutes. What more to expect from the 2018 Singapore F1 GP?
2018 Singapore GP facts & Figures
The first Singapore F1 Grand Prix was held in 2008 around Marina Bay. The frist race was won by Fernando Alonso who was driving for Renault that season and started the story about "crashgate". Briatore who was team manager of Renault asked Nelson Piquet jr., who was the 2nd driver at Renault, to deliberately crash his car on the start/finish straight, so Alonso could make a "free" pitstop and grab the lead of the race and win it. When the scandal got out, Briatore had to leave F1 to never comeback.
Because most F1 fans live in Europe the time schedule is the same as European races. Therefore the drivers have to drive a lot in the dark. The drivers even to stay in their European rhythm and go to bed at 4 am and have breakfast in the afternoon at the pool in Singapore.
To have good TV coverage of the fast moving cars (with sponsors), the 5 km long track is lit by 1.600 floodlights who consume a total of 3 Megawatts of electric power.
Singapore downtown looks spectacular in the dark. The city has a lot of architecture that can be used for great composition and stunning pictures. Here you can find last years Singapore HD pictures.
The humid and warm climate of Singapore together with the twisted track, the dark and time schedule make the Singapore the toughest race of the calendar. Drivers don't have along straight were they can get some rest.
All F1 tickets are sold out for the race. It's a pity that there aren't any Asian drivers these days in Formula 1 race.
Marina Bay circuit
The Marina Bay circuit is a street circuit. It's very twisted and one of the slowest circuits on the F1 Calendar. The Singapore track is driven ant-clockwise and with 23 turns it's the circuit with the most corners this season. It has 14 left-handed turns and 9 right-handed corners.
Because of the 2 DRS zones and the cars of today generate much more downforce, it's less difficult to overtake than before 2017. Most overtakes are done at the end of the DRS zones and around turn 14.
Singapore has a 100% safety car record, which has a big influence on strategy, and the race often runs to the full two-hour time limit.
The street tarmac of the circuit is made for endurance and therefor has low grid in compared to closed circuits. Because of being a street circuit the track is very ‘green’ in the first session. Teams also have to cope with the usual street furniture on city tracks. Because of the amount of turns and low average speeds it's very important to have a lot of downforce and mechanical grip.
The circuit is 5.065 km long and has 2 DRS-zones nowadays. The slowest corner on the track is turn 13 and is taken with 75 km/h. The fastest corner is turn 23 with 240 km/h. This corner is very important to get a high top speed at the start/finish straight. The highest speed driven in last years race was 320.5 km/h at the end of the back straight between turn 6 and 7.
The official lap record in Singapore of 1:45.008 min is set last year by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, which was also the quickest lap of the race. He won the race mainly because Vettel, Raikkonen and Verstappen, who started from P1, P2 and P3 had to retire after their start crash.
The cars of this year are about 1,5 seconds faster on 1 lap, so the track record will be broken again this year under dry conditions.
Out of all drivers that won the Singapore Grand Prix before, Sebastian Vettel won the most races.He won 4 grand prix, Hamilton 3 and Alonso 2.
It might become as a surprise to you that from a the team point of view, Red Bull and Mercedes won the most races in Singapore. They both won 3 times, Ferrari won here 2 times, McLaren and Renault won the Singapore GP once.
What happened during last years 2017 Singapore F1 GP?
Start Crash 2017 Singapore GP
Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix was wet for the first time in the history and started off with a big crash between, Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen. It never happened before in F1 history that both Ferrari's cars retired in the first lap of a race, due to a collision by them self.
The race was full of incidents and the safety car was brought out 3 times to clean up the debris on the track caused by collision damage of the racing cars.
Lewis Hamilton who started from P5 stayed out of the first corner trouble and was leading the whole race in front of Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo who finished 2nd. His teammate Valtteri Bottas started from P6 and also could make it to the podium on P3.
Hamilton won the race with a one-stop strategy, going straight from Intermediate to Ultrasoft on lap 29.
Singapore F1 GP 2018 Tyres
The Singapore Grand Prix marks the third appearance of the year for the Pirelli Pink Hypersoft tyre (after Monaco and Canada) and it’s also the fourth race of the year where there’s a ‘step’ between the tyre nominations.
The Hypersoft and the Ultrasoft will be seen at the Marina Bay circuit, but then there’s a jump to the soft (missing out the supersoft): the first time that this particular combination has been seen. The defining characteristic of Singapore it that it’s the championship’s only night race, which of course presents some unique challenges of its own – as well as a stunning spectacle.
The rear-left is the most stressed tyre at Singapore, which is the second-slowest lap of the year after Monaco
Selected sets for the 2018 Singapore F1 GP
Singapore Weather Forecast
The weather is usually moist and warm in Singapore. Last year we saw a wet race for the first time.
This year the Singapore weather prediction is that each day there will be a change of rain in the morning, but the afternoons and evenings will be dry. During FP1 and FP3 the tarmac could be still a little damp from the rain that fell earlier.
The temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be around 30ºC the whole day. The humidity of around 75% will make it not very comfortable outside.
Who will be on the 2018 Singapore F1 GP podium?
Podium Singapore GP 2017: 1. Lewis Hamilton 2. Valtteri Bottas 3. Daniel Ricciardo.
Ferrari has the fastest car and Sebastian Vettel seems to like the Singapore circuit. He scored 4 pole positions on the street circuit and will probably score his 5th this Saturday. Kimi Raikkonen is going to Sauber next season. It will be interesting to see if this has changed his cooperation with Vettel and Ferrari as a team.
The last 3 edition of Singapore Mercedes was always struggling during qualifying. They probably will be focusing on damage control, like they did in Monaco earlier this season. But you never know. As we know Lewis Hamilton will go for it as always and never gives up...
Red Bull has the best mechanical grip and highest amount of downforce of all cars on the grid. Both are key to win on the twisted circuit. Max Verstappen hasn't scored much success in previous races. He did start from P2 last year and might score his first pole position this season. Daniel Ricciardo scored 4 podiums in earlier editions and will be keen to score one again.
Sebastian Vettel will have to win this race for sure, if he wants to keep fighting for the 2018 drivers title and nothing stands in his way to do it. So my prediction is:
1. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
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