F101: Beginners guide to F1~ Singapore GP Preview
It seems hard to believe, but this weekend is round 15 of 19 of the 2010 season, and F1 heads to Singapore for its night race. So as we get ever closer to the finishing straight of the season, what can we expect from this weekend? This is the F101 Singapore preview…
The 61 lap, 3.1 mile (5km) Marina Bay street circuit, located along the harbourside in Singapore’s financial district, is incredibly demanding for all involved, because due to the race being held at night, the drivers’ and teams’ body clocks are being confused as they force themselves to stick to UK times, in order for them to be awake at night.
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The circuit itself is demanding to drive, as the straights aren’t overly long, while there are a lot of corners – 23 in total. It’s relatively slow speed, due to the stop-start nature of the track and the race is long, taking nearly two hours to complete – particularly long compared to Monza two weeks ago where the track was one of the fastest on the calendar, finishing in under an hour and a half.
The circuit has low grip, and has a lot of bumps, and while the longest straight between turns five and seven, through the sweep of turn six, offers the potential to overtake into turn seven, there are so many bumps, they can easily catch the drivers out. Off-line there are a lot of marbles and a lot of dust, due to the fact the circuit isn’t permanent, and these can easily cause the drivers a few problems.
While turn seven is the best overtaking spot, turn one is an accident black spot. The opening corners of the lap are tight, and it’s easy for the drivers to make contact, and they can easily lose their front wings. The first three corners are fairly mid-speed, while the drivers start to pick up speed through turn four and down the short straight to turn five. Turn seven is the best overtaking spot, but as mentioned, is particularly tricky due to the bumpy nature of the track. Turn eight is another potential overtaking spot, particularly if the car in front has had a bad exit through turn seven. The turn ten chicane is tricky, as it is very tight and the kerbs are high, and the slightest mistake can cost. Turns 11 and 12 are fairly fast corners compared to the rest of the circuit, but the drivers slow right down into turn 13, at around 50mph. There’s a fairly long straight down to turn 14, which is another 50mph corner. Turn 15 is a sweeping curve at around 140mph, before the drivers quickly hit another slow 50mph corner at turn 16. The exit of turn 17 was where Nelson Piquet crashed out of the race in 2008 and the corners that follow it under the Singapore buildings are also fairly low to mid speed. As the lap finishes, the drivers find their way through the long final corner, with its short apex that makes up what is turns 22 and 23, before hitting full throttle down the start/finish straight.
The pitlane entrance begins at turn 22, and exits at turn two, and is one of the longest pitlanes on the calendar. Last year a slippery white line on the exit of the pitlane caught a few of the drivers out, and some received drive-through penalties for crossing the line. A safety car made a bad situation worse for Nico Rosberg, who had been on for second place, when it was deployed just as the German was about to serve his penalty. Rosberg was forced to stay out on track until the safety car returned to the pits, and by that point the damage was done.
Not only does a long pitlane cause one or two problems in situations such as that, but the track is also very demanding on the brakes, and last year, several of the drivers, including Mark Webber, suffered with brake failure. The stop-start nature of the circuit means there is more pressure on the brakes, and this year is only going to be more demanding as they head into the race with heavy fuel loads. Slowing down the extra weight of the car will also be demanding on the tyres. Bridgestone will be bringing their super soft and medium compound tyres to the track, but judging by the weather forecast, the teams may not need to use both types…
The weather looks set to be humid with heavy rain showers predicted for Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to it being the tail end of the monsoon season, and average night-time temperatures will be around 25 degrees throughout the weekend.
In both Singapore’s previous races, it has been dry, so a bit of rain could be fascinating during the flood-lit race. Incidentally, for those of you new to Formula One, one of the best things about the race weekend is watching the cars drive around the flood-lit streets – the lights really show the cars off and great camera shots of the drivers’ eyes through their visors is always something to look out for.
Lewis Hamilton won the race last year, after starting from pole in the rejuvenated McLaren. Fernando Alonso, who won the first Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 after teammate Piquet deliberately crashed out of the race bringing out the safety car that helped Alonso on his way to victory, holds the lap record at the circuit having lapped it in 1:48.240 in 2009.
However great this weekend’s race could potentially be though, there’s only one question as the season starts to reach its climax – who will emerge from Singapore with the lead of the championship…?
