With the European phase of the season completed now, the teams have set up in the first of the final flyaway races on the other side of the world at the Marina Bay street circuit over in Singapore. A track far removed from the tradition and power on show in the temple of speed that was Monza, gone are the royal parklands, the sweeping straights under the autumnal tree canopies. Replaced by the barriers of steel and concrete weaving through the financial district of the city under the lights.
Singapore offers the season's only full night race of the year - with Abu Dhabi running into the sunset and finishing under the lights. Here - or more accurately there - in Singapore the floodlights carve a ribbon of powerful illumination through the city, woven intricately across the cityscape. It is one of the more unique venues on the calender, the cars glisten in the artificial glow, the sparks from the plank are greatly emphasised in the night. Seeing the cars dancing between the barriers and curbs is a fantastic spectacle, negotiating the lap which features two bridges and a short tunnel which dives underneath the spectator grandstand in the final sector.
And as the blog stats have shown, this little corner of the internet does appear to have a following in Singapore, so to all the people there I hope I can cover the race to the standard it deserves
The Track
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| Credit to the FIA for the track map |
Singapore is the third street track to join the calender alongside Monaco (and for some reason Valencia is still classed as street track) and stands apart from the other city tracks on the schedule. Aside from the night running of the event the layout is configured from differently to European style street tracks such as Pau and Monaco and this is due to the nature of the road network and the topology of the available streets. Making it more akin to American street circuits set on major highways and filled with 90 degree junction style corners.
The area around the starting grid is a permanent facility, the first five corners, and the final double apex corner aren't part of the street network and are only used for the race weekend. The rest of the track is the bumpy streets of the city itself peppered with a little too many corners, it may be an atmospheric environment to race under but the layout is pushing it a bit - especially considering the most of the corners are the same.
However all is far from negative, the innovative grandstand tunnel and the historic Anderson bridge is provides some very interesting scenery, including a strange glowing blue dome building which when illuminated is spectacular. The use of the main highways does allow for some speed which is often missing from street layouts, and with speed comes the opportunity for overtaking, and contact which on the streets is inevitable.
But one thing that does happen with street tracks where building space for barriers and run-off is limited it that corners are compromised in the name of good old health and safety. In Singapore compromise surrounds the Anderson Bridge which is rather narrow and cambered, where speeds have been culled by the most irritating chicane on the face of the planet. The turn 10 vortex of evil is mountainous cavern of curbs, which tend to throw cars into the outside wall. Placed to take speed out of the cars before entering the bridge section, and to create a slower corner in an area there is no place to add run-off space.
Now it is time to unveil this week's video - the layout used is the 2009 version with a wider turn 10 (it's still awkward but a little faster) and a different pit entry line. The wall on the outside of the entry to the final corner is a little further away from the side of the race track. But aside from that the layout is identical, as a result the lap time is a little faster - resulting in the blogmobile setting a time that would be pole by a considerable time so here it is.
What to Expect
Being a street track in the category of things to expect you can roughly add anything to that category - the last time we went to a proper street track (not including Valencia) we ended up with the first safety car of the season and a red flag. So who knows, but there will a series of things we can predict before the madness and the collisions take place - although that only managed to make turn one in Monza.
It can be assumed that Red Bull be very competitive as normal considering their strength in high downforce configurations. In qualifying pace, the strong mechanical grip of the Ferrari and the McLaren should keep them close to the front, making the battle for pole by no means an inevitable conclusion, although it would be difficult to bet against the Red Bulls.
Mercedes are likely to fall backwards perhaps behind Renault Squadron - last year saw Schumacher hitting everyone especially Saubers, which seems to be his favourite team to hit. With the mid-field close behind - that section of the grid is going to be very tight and difficult to overcome, Force India and Sauber could be the top two teams in this division. Demonstrated by their pace in Canada and Monaco two similar tracks even though Montreal was rain affected.
Down at the back of the grid the newer teams will want to put on a better showing then they managed in Monza, where they were dropped considerably by the established teams exhibiting a bigger gap then normal. However the length of the Singapore layout and the number of corners may make gaining ground difficult. On the other side, the nature of the circuit can play to the smaller teams in the race, being behind the carnage and safety cars allows them to make different strategic calls to take advantage of the unpredictability.
KERs and DRS.
So far this season KERs hasn't made too much of an impact - there have been a couple of KERs based overtaking manoeuvres. Hamilton on Button in Shanghai and Schumacher on Hamilton in Monza are notable examples, but the KERs system show more prowess and advantage in terms of lap time in qualifying rather than the race itself. But here things could be different the succession of 90 degree corners and traction zones could allow for some ingenuity. Using the boost to catch a driver off guard and make a move where they least expect it.
Coming into the tunnel, or into the hairpin after the Anderson bridge - could be chances for a spontaneous manoeuvre Also in groups of cars on restarts before the DRS becomes available there could be chances for KERs to take a more active role in the race as well as the qualifying session.
Then there is DRS, for this weekend there will only be a single zone, as a result of there not being enough long straight sections to choose from to implement a dual system as in Monza. In Singapore the zone will be located where the permanent section of the section meets the streets, on the exit of what is officially listed as turn 5 (claiming that little bend titled turn 4 is an actual corner). This is the biggest stretch of the layout, and is one of the bumpiest sections on the lap which will make overtaking manoeuvres into the corner at the end of the zone more entertaining. It's the same corner, where Hamilton and Webber made contact last year, and with the DRS in play more efforts could fall the same way.
The straight also includes a slight kink, under normal circumstances will be no problem even with the DRS flap open - corners such as the epic Blanchimont and Curva Grande have been run with the wing open. But the uneven surface of the track could make the cars more unstable through that bend - although the overwhelming downforce generated by the cars should be able to overcome that given the very shallow radius of the corner.
Singapore on the whole is definately a weekend worth waiting for, it's one of the events you pick out on the calender to look forward to. The atmosphere of running under the lights is immense, seeing the colours of the liveries to come alive - unfortunately no one has picked up the reins from Jordan and run a bright yellow car, that I'd much like to see. With a blue racing stripe would be nice too a la the Blogmobile that would do very nicely indeed.
It's a race where anything can happen, such is the case with street tracks - except Valencia which still isn't a street track despite what the world thinks. The night time environment tends to unleash a some extra crazy driving - as often seen in NASCAR where a full moon seems to open the green light for madness, although it doesn't take too much for them to go nuts. It is going to be an exiting and enthralling weekend full of competition and intrigue. Stack up on the race snacks as Singapore welcomes F1 2011 onto its twilight streets.
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