Singapore is a smash hit!

We’ve had a great day here in Singapore, it’s stayed dry and the cars did loads of laps. It’s amazing how quickly you get used to something new, even when it as completely different as this is.

It’s clear that the track is very challenging and there is little margin for error. It will be a very tough race because it’s 61 laps and it’s a long lap at 1m 45 secs so you are looking at an hour and three quarters. It will be very physical because of all the corners and the humidity, so I’d expect some shunts. There are two or three corners where it is very easy to make a mistake and hit the wall. It’s very bumpy and some cars are really struggling with that, especially Honda and Toyota. The McLaren and Ferrari look very stable over the bumps and are the fastest cars out there, as you’d expect. Although Alonso topped the times in practice two it was another low fuel special, but nevertheless he looks in good shape for the weekend and should be best of the rest behind the top three teams. In the battle for P4 in the constructors championship it looks like Renault will outscore Toyota this weekend.

It’s looking like a tough track on brakes, especially if you are carrying a heavy fuel load so some teams may not have the option of a one stop strategy. Red Bull and Toro Rosso both looked as though the brakes were getting pretty hot.

As there is a very high chance of a safety car here because of the shunt possibilities, the cars which qualify outside the top eight will probably want to stop once, using the principal from Canada that you need to have the widest pit window in the event of a safety car. But some won’t be able to do that.

The drivers seem to like driving at night but aren’t too happy with some of the safety aspects of the track, especially the pit entry and exit, which are quite dangerous. The entry is on the racing line, a bit like Interlagos, so they will move the pit lane entry line a but closer to the pits overnight to allow the cars to brake later and off the racing line when they are heading for the pits. Coming out of the pits is more tricky. It’s a bit like Montreal a few years ago where the cars come straight out onto the racing line into turn 1. Remember Schumacher in 1998 driving Frentzen off the road as he came out of the pits there, they modified it after that so the cars now miss out Turn 1 and filter in at turn 3. They want to do something similar here but it’s unlikely they’ll be able to do it for this year.

Interestingly, according to Alonso ,the grip levels didn’t change much over the sessions, so the track didn’t get a lot faster. This is unusual for a street track. Monaco ramps up massively over the course of a weekend as the rubber goes down. The support race cars must clean the track up quite well.

So what will we see on Saturday and Sunday? I think that the battle for pole will be intense because this is a tough track to pass on. So the top teams will go aggressive on lightish fuel loads to get pole. It should be a great qualifying session. Then in the race, there is a chance of some rain on Sunday afternoon before the race, which may leave the track damp for the start, but if not, I think it will be quite processional, but with a lot of incidents and a high attrition rate. And a safety car could change everything.