© Red Bull Content PoolPreviously At The Singapore Grand PrixIt’s very hot, very humid and very dark… not generally what people would regard as perfect conditions for a motor race, but hey, if it works, it works.
Collectively,F1hasbecomesoaccustomedtoracingatnightthatitnolongerexcitesanyparticularmention.BahrainandQatarhavenightraces;AbuDhabihostsanexoticday/nightevent–butSingaporeistheoriginal,andarguablythebest,nightraceontheF1calendar.15yearsonfromthefirstevent,it’sdifficulttorecallhowveryalientheconceptseemedbackin2008.
It's fair to say that, when the race was announced, the concept was met with some scepticism in the paddock. Would visibility be too low, or the glare too strong? What would happen if it rained? Were we really going to be leaving the track at 6am every day? But most of those worries melted away on first sight of the track. For the majority of our team, that was being driven from Changi Airport into the city, over the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, high above the first corner complex, with the Marina Bay Street Circuit and the pit-complex below lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree. It was stunning. It still is.
We’re the most successful team in Singapore in terms of points (313) and trophies (14 – four victories, six seconds, four thirds), but it’s also a track that invites a certain amount of irritation. It’s very hot, incredibly humid and – at least in the past – hasn’t provided much in the way of an overtaking opportunity. The genuine lows are things like Max being an unwilling filling in a Ferrari start-line sandwich in 2017 and Mark Webber catching fire in 2013, but the frustrations are more manifest: Singapore was always a race circled on the calendar as one we could win, regardless of horsepower deficit. Six second places left the team somewhat… irked. But the highpoints tend to compensate for that – because winning in Singapore is very special indeed.
The build-up to the 2011 race was dominated by kerbs, and specifically kerbs being torn up by passing cars with sessions delayed or red flagged. At the end of it, however, Sebastian Vettel was in good shape and duly qualified on pole position. When he made it into T1 first, that really should have been enough. The RB7 was the best car in the 2011 field, overtaking is incredibly difficult in Singapore and Seb would be able to cover anyone attempting the undercut.
Things were proceeding according to plan and Seb had a 20 second advantage over the rest of the grid… when Michael Schumacher ran into the back of Checo and brought out the Safety Car. Seb’s lead evaporated and the team had a little bit of worrying to do. Happily, Seb had the buffer of several lapped cars between him and the chasing Jenson Button at the restart, he was able to use that to his advantage, build up a cushion and reweave his comfort blanket. Victory left him one point short of retaining his Drivers’ title.
Sebastian's First© Red Bull Content Pool
There’s a tendency to remember Sebastian Vettel’s glory years at Red Bull Racing as a period of unrelenting domination. It wasn’t the case, and there’s no better example of this than the 2012 season. Singapore was race 14 of 20, and Seb went to the city-state fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, one point behind the Enstone Lotus of Kimi Räikkönen, two points behind McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and a whopping 39 points behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. He qualified third, half a second behind Hamilton, but also a tenth down on Williams’ Pastor Maldonado, who tended to do his best work on street circuits.
Seb made one of the best moves you don’t remember to snatch second place from the Venezuelan through the first complex of corners, and then sat on Hamilton’s tail. On another day that might have been the end of it, but Seb noticed Hamilton’s car leaking oil, and sure enough, 22 laps into the race, a plume of white smoke heralded the end of the McLaren driver’s evening and Seb’s assumption of the lead. He had to negotiate two Safety Cars to take back-to-back Singapore victories and at the flag dedicated his victory to Professor Sid Watkins, the FIA’s former Safety and Medical Delegate who sadly passed away between the Italian and Singapore Grands Prix. Seb’s race was illuminated with an LED helmet, our garage was illuminated by Katy Perry posing for pictures with the pit-crew, but most illuminating of all were Christian’s comments to Sebastian at the end of the race: “You’re back in this Championship.”
Two In A Row© Red Bull Content Pool
Seb recorded a grand chelem at the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix: pole, fastest lap and victory while leading every lap of the race – but not every corner. Nico Rosberg got in front into T1 at the start – but he’d pushed too hard, went long and Seb nipped back into the lead. After that, Seb simply drove away from everyone and then, when the Safety Car came out for Daniel crashing under the grandstand, drove away from everyone again. At the end of the race he had an advantage over a hard-charging Fernando Alonso of 35 seconds. “That’s what being in control looks like,” he said crossing the line, helpfully giving everyone in the media centre their Monday morning headline.
Seb Owns The Top Step© Red Bull Content Pool
It is astounding that we didn’t have a wet race in Singapore until 2022. Astounding because any circuit that can host 12 races without rain is rare, but also because it rains in Singapore all the time. Before 2022 we’d had showers before and after the race, even showers on the grid and a start on inters – but never what you’d call a wet race. That changed in 2022, and, after an hour delay while the heavens opened, it was Checo that rose magnificently to the challenge. He’d started P2 with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on pole and Max down in P8, having abandoned his final lap short of fuel.
Checo hooked up the start and took the lead, rooster tails of spray flying-up behind him. The evening was chaotic: more cars went off than stayed on, there were four Safety Cars, (two full, two virtual), lots of reversing, donuts and collisions, but it all happened behind Checo who kept his cool, made his stop onto medium tyres at just the right moment, and never put a foot wrong. The race only lasted 59 of the 61 laps, which happened to Seb in 2012 also. Singapore is the only race that regularly finishes on the two-hour time limit, rather than the 305km distance limit. This year, with a new, faster layout, that may change.
The Man Loves A Street Circuit© Getty Images
