Singapore Grand Prix was back… and the exhausting race and qualifying had a lot of takeaways and challenges. All analysed!
One word to describe it yet again… CHAOS! The Singapore Grand Prix, on a drying track was again chaos. What might have been a slightly weird chaos at the start or atleast till halfway through the race turned into a racing chaos by the end with battles developing, especially after the DRS was enabled as the race tied two other races in 2022 for the least number of classified finishing drivers in the season – 14 drivers. A much-needed result for Ferrari which could have better, a disastrous result for Mercedes, a double retirement day for Alpine and Williams, a proper performance by McLaren and then some investigations and penalties.
The chaos started with the expected announcement of the race start being delayed given the extremely heavy shower that had shown up, and almost literally flooded the whole track. The rain was too hard and the race was delayed. The race eventually started at a delay of an hour and 10 minutes, by when the track, which dries a bit slowly in Singapore, had started to dry up with the rain stopped and allowed for the start to be on Intermediate tyres. The start had to be cautious given that the trick still was very slippery, especially with certain areas having a bit of stagnated water.
The start is where it all started. Perez got a brilliant getaway and maintained his line to take the lead easily as Leclerc followed. the Hamilton and Sainz battle developed ending in contact into Turn 2. In the midst of all of this, Verstappen had a start procedure issue and lost several places. At the back, Russell had joined in from the pits. Soon, Latifi and Zhou came together at the back, a few minutes in and that was that. A very important factor became very crucial… No DRS for a long while given that thew race was in wet conditions.
THE TYRE TALK AGAIN
A drying track calls for a lot of it. It starts from the start itself. Intermediates were the need, and many had a single new set, many even more but a few had no new sets. The used sets were only a couple of laps old but they still weren’t brand new but there wasn’t a good or bad trend noticed at the start. The second question was that if there would be the need of a pitstop. Most teams were expecting a switch to slicks sometime, maybe sooner than it actually happened.
There is always also the possibility that even if conditions don’t become good enough for slicks, a pitstop maybe needed because the intermediates degraded too much, which is more managed these days. The intermediate tyres were well set in and drivers were going good on them with no significant tyre issues. The change to slicks would not just require the slicks to be matching the inters but to be faster as only would then change be beneficial given also the time loss to make the pitstop.
Russell, who was towards the back and was stuck behind cars, was the first to pit and change tyres to slick tyres. And it was a gamble which proved costly as everywhere there was a bit of stagnant water, or the tyres needed proper grip, it was tough going as the tyres weren’t as heated as required. Others understood and many waited with the Inters currently in a good window and not causing loss of lap time. A couple pitted and the cold slick tyres, especially given they were the medium tyres, hurt their laptimes and control as it became even more difficult than the inters in the areas where water had collected up.
Leclerc pitted before Perez to try the undercut but given that he did not gain as much time and rather the cold tyres made himlose out as compared the warn Inters for Perez on Leclerc’s outlap meant that Perez built a required gap to then later change onto slicks. These pitstops were made at a time when Russell had started to deliver good laptimes but he was not to benefit from any of this, after all the pain , given that he was too far back and also had the incident with Mick.
Another interesting choice was that most drivers went on to mediums given that the tyres also had to last a long time, but Ricciardo went on the soft tyres. It was faster, and is the better choice when it comes to making it work as well and it did last long enough for him to finish the race in P5 but it wasn’t the choice for all given that some were on different pushing strategies and could not take the risk.
https://embed.smartframe.io/cf672a5debefbf3ded9207696998bf28.jsSECTOR 3
A tricky sector. It naturally is a tricky sector as the tight twisty sections requires drivers to balance out where they compromise in order to get a smooth rundown the rest of the corners, and the cars need to be able to take the ride on the kerbs with very precise placement. It is a place where time is lost and gained majorly at the end of a lap, especially in qualifying. To add to that, the wet conditions and the stagnated water at certain places made that not just a tricky challenge but a nightmare for some, including Verstappen in the Qualifying. The slicks also struggled in that sector and that meant that it became crucial in deciding who had the advantage in just those thousand some metres,
BATTLE FOR P3
Sainz finished P3, but first Hamilton challenged him and then Norris came to close to doing the same, with Ricciardo behind him. With the top 2, off in the distance from early on, it was P3 which was being fought for mainly. The fight emerged from Sainz’s struggles, which although weren’t as bad as that of some others but were bad given that he lacked overall pace in comparison to Leclerc. With Sainz not driving forward at the same rate as Leclerc, Hamilton made an initial challenge, after both made contact at the start and reversed positions, but then backed off before slowly closing in as the race progressed and then trying to make a move but getting caught out in the conditions and not braking in time to be able to turn in. That destroyed his race as he was now stuck in some legendary battles with Vettel and Verstappen.
https://embed.smartframe.io/cf672a5debefbf3ded9207696998bf28.jsNorris was on pace throughout on his mediums. Ricciardo on his softs challenged but not for long as he did have the needed advantage with fresh tyres and then by the end, even all other team factors given, he was not there. Which made it more of a Norris – Sainz battle wherein Norris also had some struggles with the car and never closed in enough. It was a brilliant strategised drive from all 3, as they took advantage of the mistakes of others and the team’s did not mess up their race by calling them in to box at the wrong times or taking a weird gamble, and racecraft was on display as they kept it on, but it was sad story of not being fast enough. If Hamilton had not had that moment, maybe the podium and the storyline for the battle for P3 would have been different given the pace he was carrying until then and the challenges made later on.
All in all, it was a frustrating race for many and the wet conditions with only one main racing line being in proper drivable condition, overtakes were hard and adventurous moves weren’t accepted and got naturally punished by the track itself. A earlier start might not have even allowed for the amount of racing that did finally take place. Some brilliant individual drives but overall it was exhausting for all in those conditions. Those who stuck to safe strategies and simple racing got rewarded whereas those who gambled had wrong measurements.
| SINGAPORE ROARS SCARING SOME OFF |
spielens 