Singapore: The Toughest Race In F1?

This weekend’s inaugural Singapore Grand Prix produced an immense upset when Fernando Alonso won, but is Singapore the toughest race on the f1 calendar?

Fernando Alonso said he was too tired (from his water system failing) to celebrate on the podium. Many drivers were plain exhausted after the race. Was the Singapore Grand Prix the toughest race? Here are reasons why I now consider Singapore one of the hardest races on the Formula 1 calendar.

Weather and Climate

Singapore's hot and humid weather tested drivers to the best of their abilities. Even though it ran at night, we saw temperatures in the high twenties (celcius).

Race Length and Duration

Sunday night's race finished right on the two hour mark. With a lap averaging around 1:48, the race would have run for 1hr 50 minutes. Add safety cars to this, and pit stops, we are reaching the two hour in which did happen.

Bumps

With the track being bumpier then thought, many cars were bottoming in during the first runs in free practice one on Friday. Who would think we would see cars bottoming out, in 2008? With the bumps in braking zones, many drivers made mistakes leading onto the runoff.

Brakes

The brakes at Singapore were in excess of one thousand degrees celsius, probably the highest temperatures for brakes with the exception of Canada. Ferrari even went to the length of running drivers with different brake manufacturers.

Walls

Mark Webber was first to hit the walls of Singapore on Friday, but the walls and tyre barriers of Singapore also caught out Rubens Barrichello, Gincarlo Fisichella (twice), and Kimi Raikkonen during the race.

Kerbs

The kerbs of the infamous turn 10 managed to catch out even the most experienced of drivers, with Gincarlo Fisichella and world champion Kimi Raikkonen launching their cars over the kerbs into the concrete wall awaiting them.

Verdict

Singapore would certainly be certainly one of the toughest circuits for drivers and cars also, with the climate, duration, bumps, walls, kerbs and lots of braking. For what I see, not much should be changed, as these challenges are what these twenty of the best drivers in the world are paid for.