Why McLaren was so dominant in the Singapore GP

In a year when the fight at the front of Formula 1 has closed up perhaps like never before, the scale of McLaren’s advantage in Singapore went against the grain.

Indeed, just one weekend on from Baku, where Oscar Piastri had to fight tooth-and-nail with Charles Leclerc for a win that hung in the balance until the penultimate lap, the picture in Singapore could not have been more different.

Lando Norris was in a class of his own in qualifying, held a comfortable lead early on and then, in the words of Christian Horner, started “taking the p**s” when he upped his speed to pull almost 25 seconds clear of Max Verstappen before the pitstops.

Considering that McLaren had brought almost no upgrades to Singapore, bar a revised beam wing, from the outside the turnaround in just seven days does not appear to have an obvious explanation.

But the key to understanding what happened is that F1’s top challengers have their strengths and weaknesses depending on the downforce levels used each weekend and the type of track.

We know Mercedes is better at high-speed tracks (especially if it is cool) and weaker at hotter low-speed venues where traction is important. Ferrari has good top speed and loves slow short corners, while Red Bull probably remains king in terms of overall low-drag high-speed aero efficiency.

But what Singapore proved, especially after what we saw at Zandvoort, is that McLaren is clear of everyone when it comes to maximum downforce circuits.

For McLaren boss Andrea Stella, the performance picture of Singapore was all about how well the MCL38 performs at the downforce levels required for the Marina Bay circuit – which are at the opposite end of the spectrum to Baku which demands low drag levels.

“I think if I look at previous races, at this high level of downforce, we seem to be very competitive,” he said when asked about why Norris had been so fast in Singapore.

“So, I think it might have to do more with the level of downforce, than with the fact that we may be chipping away at getting more and more out of the car.”

A trawl back through this season almost certainly suggests that when the downforce levels are maxed out, and drag is not really a factor, then McLaren excels.

Stella added: “I think the car has been strong in this configuration. I always make the examples of Hungary and Zandvoort, even Hungary…