Just a week after taking on one of the most unforgiving circuits on the calendar in Baku, teams and drivers must steel themselves for another demanding street track. The Singapore Grand Prix is regularly the longest and most gruelling race of the year.
The 15th edition of the first F1 race ever to be held at night, the Marina Bay circuit presents drivers with a similar challenge to Baku – only a much longer race in energy-sapping humidity.
Since Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix no one has managed to win two races back-to-back. Will the race produce another unlikely winner this year after Carlos Sainz Jnr’s surprise triumph 12 months ago?
These are the talking points for the Singapore Grand Prix.
Can Red Bull resolve their set-up woes?
Red Bull failing to score a podium finish last weekend in Baku was nothing out of the ordinary, given how the world champions have been caught and surpassed by their rivals as the 2024 season has progressed.
But what was striking was how, for the first time in a long time, Verstappen did not have the pace of team mate Sergio Perez. While Perez was fighting for a podium in the closing laps, the championship leader was languishing in sixth place and unable to match the speed of his team mate ahead.
McLaren have been consistently faster than Red Bull for many rounds now, but Verstappen has been able to keep the damage in the championship from Lando Norris to a minimum through a combination of his own skill and McLaren being unable to make the very most of their opportunities. However, Verstappen now heads to a circuit that produced Red Bull’s worst performance of the 2023 season last year. Will they struggle again this year?
Verstappen believes that his underwhelming performance last weekend was down to the set-up direction he and the team went for in Azerbaijan. Red Bull must ensure they strike the right balance with the set-up this weekend, otherwise they might not be able to prevent Norris taking a large chunk out of Verstappen’s championship lead.
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Ferrari at the front
Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix was a standout among a season dominated by Red Bull and Verstappen. In fact, it was the only race all season that the world champions failed to win out of the 22.
Sainz took full advantage of Red Bull stumbling around the Singapore streets to deliver one of the best performances of his career and hold off…
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