Round 13 - Singapore 2015 - Review (Delayed)

Greetings Internet, 

After a weekend almost everything defied their traditional conventions, and I attempted relatively poorly to translate the intro to the qualifying post into Pirate. It stands to reason we were handed a race which too refused to comply to the form of the rest of the season. The sudden swap in performance was staggering - yes we saw it happen throughout the practice sessions and then in qualifying. But the race is a wholly different kettle of piranhas, and the Sunday evening in Singapore certainly threw most conventions to the winds, yet amidst the confusion there remained plenty of commonality to cling onto. Things to ground ourselves and remind us that the 2-hour epic voyage through the tropical streets was part of the same championship and the same sport we have been witnessing all season long. Manor were circulating on their own at the back - although at one point they got a little bored and decided to hang out with the rest of the group - because after all it can get a little lonely in last place. We had a McLaren team having another day they would rather not remember and Mad Max Verstappen turned into a stroppy teenager - and now has had his TV privileges revoked and his pocket money allowance reduced. This is what happens when you let the young folk stay up too late for a night race, clearly past his bed time. 

This most recent edition of the Singaporean GP wasn't an instant classic, there wasn't a titanic battle for the win or some mythic recovery of form by Mercedes to continue their domination. But it had all the traditional elements of a Singaporean GP - a 2hr race duration, safety cars, late race charges and lots of pretty lights... We traditionally don't visit Singapore for a simple, lights to flag strategy race, we come for the unusual, the weird and the outright bizarre - and we got a small sample of that on Sunday.

The Race

I suppose at this point I should make the disclosure that I am completing this post based on the BBC Highlights package, rather than the full race - because I was away from both the TV and the internet for the weekend. So I stole a little time to catch the BBC version of events where time allowed. Because as of this point in time I have spent about 15 minutes in the house since the completion of the qualifying update. It also explains why I am writing this on a Monday... or at least starting it on a Monday... and it has now spilled over into Tuesday.

Anyway back to the race itself - which turned into an outside broadcast in the end - and I sat down in preparation for a manic 61 laps of the city where four cars fought for the victory. But off the line it was suprisingly orderly, Vettel vanished off into the distance and the top six held their positions. Further back however there was a spot of bother for Mad Max Verstappen who's Toro Rosso had gotten stuck in anti-stall mode and refused to get off the line. The car was wheeled back into the garage and restarted in the pit-lane. Max would re-enter the race but one lap down. Further round the lap we saw the two Force Indias trying not to crash into each other at the apex of the ingeniously named 'turn 7'. Both cars avoided each other and the concrete barrier before sorting themselves out on the run down to turn 8. 

It was at this point, following a bunch of replays, that the highlights package skipped ahead to lap 10... so I assume that in the missing ten laps absolutely nothing happened. Which I will probably agree with, as this was a multi-stop race so everyone was more focussed on holding station until the first round of pitstops. Vettel had started to build a comfortable lead, but Ricciardo was starting to close the gap slightly. Raikkonen and Kvyat a little further back had the two off-pace Mercedes' for company but neither was a real threat to them. So we just waited for the pitstops to begin, and although it had only been a fortnight since the Italian GP - virtually all of the crews appeared to forget how to perform a suitable pitstop. Wheel guns were not being seated on the wheel nuts properly, tyres wouldn't come off or go on as smoothly as we are used to, it was all a little chaotic. Of the leading group it was Daniil Kvyat who dove for the pit-lane first in the Red Bull, likely hoping to leap-frog Raikkonen with the undercut and make it two Red Bulls in the top three. A valid strategy, in fact it was the same strategy that Ricciardo was counting on to handle being second to Vettel, but all good plans never quite go as expected...

While the pitstop window remained open Felipe Massa in the Williams became the next key volunteer to switch onto a new set of tyres. He too experienced pit-lane difficulties when one of his wheels look a little longer to sort out, but things were to get a little worse. As Felipe trundled out of the pitlane and back onto the circuit there was a Force India barrelling down the outside and fixed with a steely determination not to lose track position to the Williams. 

That Force India was piloted by Nico Hulkenberg, who cut across the front of Massa's car in a desperate attempt to defend the place. However Felipe was far enough alongside for that manoeuvre to be a more than a lost cause - as a result Nico found himself turned around and fired into the barrier. The collision knocked the Force India out of the race and gave Massa a slow puncture. Race control called a virtual safety car to allow the Hulkenberg's car to be dragged away. Under the virtual safety car everyone who hadn't already pitted, stopped for new tyres - which rather ruined Kvyat's strategy of using the undercut as any advantage had been erased by the VSC and to make matters worse he lost ground to the two Mercedes cars. After examining the crash site, the virtual safety car was upgraded to a full conventional safety car, meaning that for the upteenth race in a row - a Mercedes was leading... just not one of the F1 incarnations. This safety car intervention also played into Vettel's hands as it removed the chance for Ricciardo to try the undercut strategy to sneak into the lead of the race. Another beneificary of the real safety car was Mad Max Verstappen who under the rules of allowing lapped cars to move out of the way of the leading cars, ended up putting himself back onto the lead lap... I'm not sure if the system is supposed to work like this but it made the latter stages of the race more interesting so I'd leave it in... for now...

Several laps later, the safety car was recalled and racing got underway once more. Vettel continued to vanish off into the distance pursued by Ricciardo and Raikkonen. But the German bloke's disappearing act was only temporary as he started losing time to those following him. Allowing Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Hamilton to close the gaps to the leader. Lewis and the commentary team spotted this as a deliberate decision by Vettel to slow the pace. As it would back Ricciardo into Raikkonen in the hope that the second Ferrari could then overtake the lead Red Bull. While the plan was sound and had the added advantage of increasing the tyre life of Vettel's current set - Raikkonen was unable to capitalise on the opportunity. Likewise Hamilton was unable to do anything about the Finn in front of him and Rosberg was a little too far back for any of this to really matter to him. Meanwhile behind the scenes the powers that be up in the refuge of race control had been spending some time looking over the Massa/Hulkenberg incident and had come to a swift conclusion that the Force India driver would be handed a 3 place grid penalty. Considering we have seen drivers receive 50 place grid penalties this season for a single event, three doesn't seem so significant anymore. However the BBC highlights package didn't even mention that the incident was under investigation... well played BBC... Speaking of those on the receiving end of excessive penalties this season, time for a McLaren update. Jenson Button was running outside the points under pressure from Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso - and according to his team, the car was suffering from a slight overheating issue. Jenson at this point in the year had become quite accustomed to radio messages about mechanical failures he simply responded with "...anything else?".

Meanwhile a second radio call about technical gremlins was aired, at least the BBC decided to pick this one up - probably only because it emanated from Lewis Hamilton's car. If Will Stevens or Marcus Ericsson was having such a troubled time with their cars, I seriously doubt that it would have made it into the highlights program... Anyway Lewis was complaining of a lack of power, and his Mercedes was dropping rapidly off the back of Raikkonen's Ferrari. Over the following laps he started losing places and fell out of the points positions, and his descent through the field was accompanied by a large quantity of increasingly desperate radio messages. Mercedes attempted to rectify the problem with a series of reset codes and button combinations for Lewis to press on the steering wheel. None of the options were working as the championship leader plummeted out of contention, not that the Mercedes driver was ever in contention for victory in this race weekend anyway. So while Hamilton dragged an ailing Mercedes round the circuit, we hear that another car was experiencing technical difficulties. Felipe Massa still running after the contact with Hulkenberg reported that the car kept dropping into neutral, which would be quite problematic - but after nursing the condition for several laps was informed by the team that he'd have to retire the car.

As much as I like this era of increased telemetry and cost saving measures on component usage - it has completely erased the notion of driving the car into the ground. Even if something was a little wrong with it, drivers would drive around the problem and keep going until the car died completely. Instead drivers are told retire because they want to save components for a later date or that they have to limit the potential damage and save component milage. Back in the Hamilton camp, the issue with his car - which was later diagnosed to be a simple metal clamp which had failed - Lewis was on the radio asking the team these very questions. Was it worth retiring to save the engine and other parts for Suzuka - after much deliberation Hamilton was called to the garage. Meaning the championship leader was out of the race for the first time this season. To complete a hat-trick of retirements Fernando Alonso was also seen being wheeled back into his garage with yet another mechanical failure for McLaren... at least Button was in the points...

After a spate of retirements, we were all set for things to start calming down again - before the second round of pit-stops. But in Singapore we've all come to know that doesn't quite happen as planned. We cut to a screen informing us that the real safety car was back out on track - handing more laps lead to Mercedes - because there was a lunatic wandering down the side of the race track... Now I may be madder than a bag of spanners in a tumble drier, but you'd have to be a special kind of moron to enter a live race track with cars that would instantly kill you if they struck at any kind of representative speed. According to the internet this fool was a drunken Englishman - but no official statement that I have tracked down corroborates this statement. Although it does come at no surprise that the mention of drunkenness is affixed to a member of this island while on holiday... After the safety car was deployed the invader slipped through another marshaling post and was then promptly arrested. Vettel apparently saw the prat cross the circuit and take photos of the cars as they passed him... so could he be a Mercedes spy attempting to figure out why Ferrari were beating them this weekend, who knows. In due course the answers may be revealed. Anyway during the safety car period the drivers took the opportunity to visit the pits once more for their next rounds of stops. Again this played into the hands of Ferrari and Vettel because it took away even the remote opportunity for Ricciardo to perform the undercut and take the win.

As the fool had exited the circuit, this was a relatively short safety car intervention and once the stops were completed, lapped cars were instructed to get out of the line an overtake the safety car. A fairly reasonable and standard procedure - but Alex Rossi on his Manor debut wasn't really up for complying with these procedures. The American had probably decided that life was far more fun up amongst the lead cars and wanted to hang out with the bigger and richer teams. At the back of the grid, things get a little lonely. So Rossi took the restart third in line, just in front of Raikkonen - which must have irked the Finn ever so slightly as he couldn't attack Ricciardo as the race got underway once more. The Manor driver was swiftly overtaken on the main straight and drove off the road at turn one to get out of the way of the lead-lap cars. It was revealed later that Rossi had lost radio contact with the team, and therefore was unable to receive radio instructions to overtake under the safety car to get back in line. At least that's what the story is, but I think he just wanted to make friends up at the front of the grid. 

As the race resumed, the first few drivers all continued precisely where they'd left off - holding station once they negotiated their way past Rossi. But further back things were not quite so calm - with less than 20 laps remaining Lotus gambled on staying out under the safety car and gained track position. However there was a pack of cars with fresher tyres right behind them lead by Jenson Button in the McLaren. Jenson's first target was Pastor Maldonado - just the person you'd want to be having a battle with in the final third of a race on worn

tyres. Pastor defended the position if his life depended on it, forcefully crowding Button out at the third chicane from home. This compromised his line through the second part of the chicane and Jenson aimed for the inside on the run up to the passage under grandstand. Pastor saw this coming and slammed the door shut giving Jenson nowhere to go and no time to react - Button clipped the back of the Lotus sending parts of his front wing sailing into the air and into the path of the cars behind. Most of the pursuing pack managed to avoid the debris but Carlos Sainz struck it with the nose of his car and it exploded into thousands of shards of carbon fibre. Jenson had to pit for a new wing, thus ruining his shot at scoring points. 

This didn't mean that Pastor was safe from further attacks, because both Toro Rossos were lining up in attack formation headed by Mad Max Verstappen. Because of quick of the unlapping procedure that Rossi didn't take part in - Verstappen was back on the lead lap and fighting for points. It was clear that Mad Max had considerably more tyre grip than the Lotus he was attacking. He was able to perform the very pass Button was attempting, down the inside as the road turns underneath the stands. While Verstappen moved on to hunt down Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus - Carlos Sainz got to work on Maldonado, and he was followed by both Saubers. it would take a small miracle to for Pastor and his worn tyres to hold them all, or any of them off for the remainder of the race. What followed was a menagerie of cars overtaking Lotus' drivers as the initial track position advantage didn't prove to be enough. Verstappen passed Grosjean on the inside of the same chicane where he set up the pass on Maldonado. Whereas Sainz threw it down the inside of the Frenchman in turn one - easing the Lotus out onto the run off area as the Spaniard breezed past. It was at this point that both Lotus drivers effectively admitted defeat and put up minimal resistance against the pair of Saubers who repeated the overtakes performed by Toro Rosso. 

Having dispatched the Lotus drivers, the Toro Rossos - still running in attack formation descended on Sergio Perez in the one remaining Force India. He too was on much older tyres, but because both Sainz and Mad Max had used a lot of their new set carving through the field - the grip advantage had slightly diminished. Plus of course over the years Perez has been known for extending his tyre life beyond the conventional boundaries. This proved to be a much tougher challenge for Mad Max, allowing Sainz to close right up behind, to a small extent Carlos had used less of his tyres because Max opened the door on both Lotus' first and had to take more out of the rubber. This gave Sainz an idea, and a proposition. One that we have seen the main Red Bull team attempt at Monaco - let the driver who thinks he has more pace through to attack the car ahead... if it doesn't work reverse the places before the end of the race. There must have been more to the exchange over the radio that wasn't aired on the BBC highlights package, because all we were presented with was the instruction from the Toro Rosso pitwall to Verstappen to allow Sainz through. Now the english language is rich and diverse full of words we can use to express precisely how we feel about certain commands. Now despite Mad Max being Dutch and barely out of school, he does know a reasonable percentage of the words within the English language. So with all the possible options in mind the mad teenager simply replied with "No" barked with more than a hint of the disobedience and stroppiness of a child who has been asked to tidy his/her room. Toro Rosso repeated their requests, only for them to fall on deaf ears once again - there were not too many laps left for Mad Max to let Carlos through, and as time dragged on it left Sainz with even fewer chances to do anything with Perez if he was granted passage. Further back with another McLaren update - Jenson Button was also called to the garage to retire the car, so from a promising weekend and a real chance of scoring points, the team head away from Singapore empty handed. 

Things at the very front of the field were easy for Vettel - there was no late charge from Ricciardo, and the Australian had no real pressure from Raikkonen either. So the top three cruised home in the positions they started in. If that was the race headline it would completely disguise the slightly mad route the race had taken to get to this point, and the brilliant battles at the opposite end of the points. Outside the podium places is an unusual place to find a Mercedes powered car never mind one from the factory team, but in 4th place was Nico Rosberg, the sole representative from the all conquering Silver Arrows left in the race. Nico managed to trim the deficit to Hamilton in the championship by a little bit but lost more points to Vettel who closes in on his second place. Valtteri Bottas brought the one remaining Williams home in 5th place, ahead of Daniil Kvyat who was caught out significantly by the first virtual safety car intervention. Behind the Russian with the death stare was Sergio Perez, who had successfully held off the attacks of grumpy teenager Mad Max Verstappen. It also meant that Verstappen Jnr still refused to release Sainz - but by that point it was too late for it to matter anyway. So both Toro Rosso's finished 8th and 9th. Romain Grosjean tried to hold onto the final championship point but was overtaken by both Saubers, in the end only Felipe 'Fred' Nasr was able to score for the underfunded swiss team.

The Considerably Belated Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

While it may now be Tuesday - and we'll see if it doesn't become Wednesday before this is finally published... having started it on Monday. But I haven't been at my computer at Blog HQ for a while. The race itself was an outside broadcast, but anyway here, finally, are the points following the Singapore GP.

• 25pts - Mad Max Verstappen - From going a lap down at the start to scoring points and passing people en route - deserves many points
• 18pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - A double for Toro Rosso as the team operated in formation to dispatch the opposition
• 15pts - Sergio Perez - One of the only runners on the worn tyres that managed to hold off the Toro Rosso onslaught
• 12pts - Jenson Button - Was on course for a decent points haul, had things not gone wrong with Maldonado
• 10pts - Alex Rossi - Made friends with Raikkonen and defeated the chap who has been in the car all season on his debut
• 8pts - Sebastian Vettel - Made that look very easy indeed, despite Ricciardo's best laid plans, the German bloke had that race completely under control through all the restarts.
• 6pts - Felipe 'Fred' Nasr - After Ericsson had been taking home the points for Sauber in the past races, Nasr added to the tally this time
• 4pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Was able to reel in Vettel from time to time and scored one of Renault's highest finishes in 2015
• 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Rounded off a double podium for Ferrari
• 1pt -Daniil Kvyat - Got unlucky with the timing of the first safety car deployment but still but still had a decent day.

• -1pt - Track Invader - You utter plonker
• -1pt - BBC - Make longer highlights packages to accommodate a longer race, thanks
• -1pt - SKY TV - Give the races back to the BBC to make outside broadcasts easier, thanks

Looking ahead to Suzuka

The upcoming Japanese GP will be a difficult weekend for all involved for several different reasons. Mercedes will want to know why they were suddenly so comprehensively beaten in Singapore, Toro Rosso will need to know whether they can cut off Verstappen's TV privileges and lock his hotel room after 9pm as it is past his bedtime. But more importantly, and far more sincerely - the 2015 Japanese GP marks one year since the incident that ultimately resulted in the death of Marussia driver Jules Bianchi. At this point I don't know what the weather conditions have in store this weekend in Japan but a change in start time plus the new regulations involving virtual safety cars should prevent that perfect storm from ever forming again. 

Undoubtedly there will be tributes and reminiscences about what happened at the Dunlop corner, but there will also be joy in the fact that the Suzuka circuit is one of the the most universally loved venues to go racing on. The corners are spectacular and are placed beautifully. Each one has its own unique challenge and profile, so many are famous throughout the world of motorsport in their own right. It isn't one of those new soul-less car parks in the middle of the desert - it is a fantastic track, and of the remaining races it is easily the most enticing. Only Spa can be held in quite the same high regard, and perhaps Silverstone if you ignore that arena section. We like Suzuka because it is a challenge and it punishes errors with a visit to the barrier or a gravel trap. We just wish it didn't have the consequences it did in 2014.