Analysis: Things we learned from the Singapore Grand Prix

Following a season that has been dominated by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, the Singapore Grand Prix noticed Ferrari finish their rival’s dominance with Carlos Sainz taking his second profession victory. F1Technical’s senior author Balázs Szabó delivers his Singapore race evaluation.

Winless streak – In a season the place Red Bull managed to win each single spherical, the Singapore Grand Prix in all probability provided a singular alternative for his or her rivals to file a victory. With Red Bull barely off the tempo round the modified Marina Bay monitor, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes used this chance to battle it out amongst themselves with the Scuderia popping out on prime following a rarely-seen battle in the dying levels of the 62-lap race.

Ferrari clinched their 242th F1 victory on Sunday, successful for the first time since final yr’s Austrian Grand Prix. For their successful driver, Carlos Sainz, it was his second profession win after his victory for Ferrari in the 2022 British Grand Prix.

It was Ferrari’s fourth win at Marina Bay following their triumphs in 2010, 2015 and 2019. The consequence ties Ferrari with Mercedes and Red Bull with all three outfits having received 4 occasions apiece.

Tight affair – Carlos Sainz needed to work arduous for his second F1 victory to beat the risk from the fast-charging Mercedes drivers. The Spaniard crossed the end line 0.812s forward of second-placed Lando Norris, albeit it was not the closest end at Singapore. The smallest successful margin in Singapore F1 Grand Prix historical past got here in 2010 when Fernando Alonso beat Sebastian Vettel by simply 0.239s.

Faultless achievement – Red Bull has had a faultless season thus far in 2023. The Milton Keynes-based outfit has received each race thus far his season and as additionally they received final yr’s season-concluding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, that they had a run of 15 consecutive wins. However, Carlos Sainz’s heroic win at the Singapore Grand Prix ended Red Bull’s file streak and Max Verstappen’s run of ten consecutive victories.

Unbroken file – Safety automotive interruptions belong to the Singapore Grand Prix. Since its inception, Marina Bay has been recognized for that includes a minimum of one security automotive in each race version, with a complete of 24 security automotive deployments as of 2023. Sunday’s race was no exception in the sense that each the security automotive and the digital security automotive was deployed throughout the 62-lap race.

Pit cease – Neither group was capable of get near the greatest pit cease efficiency of the 2023 F1 season at the Singapore Grand Prix. Red Bull carried out the greatest tyre change after they serviced Sergio Perez’s automotive with the cease requiring 2.32s. McLaren achieved the second quickest tyre change (2.46s), adopted by Ferrari (2.51s). The general greatest tyre change in 2023 stays the pit cease carried out by Red Bull at the Hungarian Grand Prix that solely required 1.98s.

Interestingly, solely seven of the tyre modified have been carried out inside 3 seconds with Mercedes having been unable to alter tyres inside that mark regardless of their complete of 4 pit stops.

Late cost – While Lewis Hamilton was unable to problem for prime positions in qualifying, the British driver ended the Singapore race on the podium. It was partly all the way down to Charles Leclerc’s misfortune in the pit lane and his team-mate George Russell’s mistake on the last lap, but in addition all the way down to his late cost that was attainable via the contemporary medium tyre he obtained throughout his second cease.

The pit cease for the Mercedes drivers allowed them to mild up the timing screens with Hamilton setting the quickest lap of the race with a 1m35.867s. His team-mate Russell set the second quickest lap, 4 tenths of a second slower than what Hamilton managed. Despite struggling for tempo throughout the whole weekend, Fernando Alonso set the third quickest race lap with a 1m36.456s due to his late cease for Pirelli’s comfortable compound.

When it involves quickest lap in the present season, Max Verstappen remains to be the driver with the most quickest laps (6) with Hamilton following the Dutchman (3). Sergio Perez has set the quickest laps on two events whereas Zhou Guanyu, Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri, George Russell have been the solely different drivers to file the quickest race lap.

Driver of the Day – He could have received by lower than a second, however Carlos Sainz reigned supreme in Singapore. It is subsequently no shock that Ferrari’s Spaniard was voted as Driver of the Day with 21.2 per cent of the votes.

AlphaTauri’s rookie driver Liam Lawson earned the second highest proportion (14.4 per cent), adopted by Lando Norris (13.6 per cent), George Russell (9.8 per cent) and Max Verstappen (7.6 per cent).

Tyres – Pirelli introduced the softest compounds, the C3, C4 and C5 to Singapore. With overtaking being a tough affair round the Marina Bay monitor, each driver tried to restrict the variety of pit stops even when the greater than anticipated tyre put on would have favoured a two-stop technique.

It meant that drivers carried out very lengthy stints on Sunday. The longest stint on the arduous compound was the 42-lap run, accomplished by Nico Hulkenberg, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson. The greatest time on this compound was Sainz’s 1m37.666s that the Spaniard recorded on the twenty seventh lap of his stint. That was the starting of the part of the grand prix when Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell commenced their late cost on their contemporary set of mediums.

The longest stint on the yellow-banded mediums was carried out by Zhou Guanyu as the Chinese driver racked up 42 laps on the C4 compound. The quickest lap on the compound was registered by Lewis Hamilton, who clocked in a 1m35.867s on the third lap of his race-ending stint with that point having change into the quickest race lap.

The longest stint on the comfortable compound belonged to Charles Leclerc, who began on the C5 tyres and accomplished a complete of 20 laps till the security automotive was deployed following Logan Sargeant’s mistake at Turn 14. Fernando Alonso recorded the quickest lap on the red-walled tyres with a 1m36.456s after he made good use of the late digital security automotive that allowed a ten-minute sooner pit cease in comparison with a tyre change in regular circumstances.

Unknown territory – Two drivers made their Singapore debut final weekend, with Logan Sargeant and Liam Lawson getting their first style of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Although the American driver completed the race, he made a curcial mistake on his last push lap in qualifying which noticed him set a lap in Q1 that was six tenths of a second slower than what his team-mate Alex Albon managed. His race was comporimed after he crashed inti the limitations at Turn 14 on Lap 20 with the incident inflicting injury to the entrance wing of his special-liveried Williams.

For Liam Lawson, it was a extra profitable afternoon. After qualifying tenth quickest on Saturday, the New Zealander appeared to have tailored shortly to his automotive in the immense warmth on the tight and difficult monitor. The 21-year-old driver scored his first factors in F1 together with his P9 end, gathering two additional factors to AlphaTauri’s earlier three-point haul.

In his first three F1 begins, Lawson has completed thirteenth, eleventh and ninth and have become the 350th driver to attain factors in a Formula 1 World Championship occasion.

Deleted – Track limits have precipitated hardly any points at the Marina Bay Street Circuit with the partitions very clearly defining the racing traces. However, there are just a few corners the place drivers can play with the limits of the 4.9km circuit with Turns 2, 7 and 19 inviting drivers to exceed the monitor limits.

During the 62-lap race, ten laps have been deleted for monitor restrict infringements. Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had all one lap time deleted apiece whereas Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg misplaced two laps in the warmth of Singapore. Of course, these infringement had no direct consequence, however a fourth mistake would have resulted in a time penalty.

Penalties – Sergio Perez was concerned in two separate incident throughout the race. The Mexican collided with Yuki Tsunoda on the opening lap of the race which power AlphaTauri’s Japanese driver to retire from the occurring. The incident was investigated by the stewards, however Perez bought away with it. However, the six-time F1 race winner had a collision with Williams driver Alexander Albon wherein he Perez tried an overtaking manoeuvre into Turn 13. With the stewards calling the Mexican’s manoeuvre “optimistic”, Perez was handed out a five-second time penalty and one penalty level. He now has a complete of three penalty factors for the 12-month interval.

Interestingly, the pair was concerned in a distinct incident. During the digital security automotive interval, Albon exited the pits whereas Perez was on the monitor with the pair arriving at the second Safety Car Line at the identical time. Albon stayed forward, however the incident was investigated. However, the stewards took no additional motion as “The timing system was unable to determine that there was any diffence in their respective times of arrival at SC2. Video evidence was inconclusive when combined with an examination of the SC/VSC delta times.”

Fernando Alonso has a dismal weekend in Singapore. The Spaniard certified a lowly P8 and left the Asian spherical with none factors on account of lack of tempo, pit cease mistake and an formidable entry into the pit lane. The two-time world champion crossed the white line and the kerb when he tried to enter the pit lane which led to a five-second penalty which he served throughout his second pit cease.

Miserable run – George Russell was on target for a really profitable weekend in Singapore. The one-time F1 winner certified second on the grid, just below a tenth of a second off Carlos Sainz’s pole place time and had an unlimited tempo benefit in the closing levels of the race on account of his contemporary medium tyres.

However, his efforts have been in useless after crashing his Mercedes in the last lap. Russell was nonetheless categorised in P16, however failed to attain for the second time in the final three races after a late race-ending contact at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Drivers’ Championship – When it involves the factors desk, the Singapore Grand Prix led to a couple key adjustments. Despite his low-key weekend, championship runaway chief Max Verstappen nonetheless has 151 factors greater than second-placed Sergio Perez.

The first key change revolved round third place in standings. While Fernando Alonso held on to P3 in the Drivers’ Championship in most of the season, Lewis Hamilton took over this from the Spaniard after a weekend when the Aston Martin driver failed to attain a single level in distinction to the Mercedes driver’s third-place end that earned him fifteen factors.

In the meantime, Carlos Sainz closed in on third place due to his eye-catching leads to Monza and Singapore whereas Lando Norris is slowly catching seventh-placed George Russell in the standinds.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen scored his first level since May and he’s now tied with Yuki Tsunoda in the standings with each drivers having scored three factors apiece.

Constructors’ Championship – Although Red Bull didn’t win for less than the second time in the final 26 Grands Prix, their benefit in the Teams’ Standings has hardly modified as second-placed Mercedes trails the Milton Keynes-based outfit by 308 factors.
While Ferrari spent most of the season languishing down in fourth place, the Scuderia managed to overhaul Aston Martin in Monza, and so they have now constructed a 48-point lead from the Silverstone-based group and likewise edged nearer to Mercedes.

Despite scoring solely a singe level, the Singapore race was a profitable spherical for Haas because it was their first points-finish in a Grand Prix since Miami. There are actually two factors away from Alfa Romeo and 7 factors forward of AlphaTauri.