What happened under the lights at the Singapore Grand Prix...?

Smooooooth Operatorrrrrr! The Singapore Grand Prix was arguably the best race of the season to date, and that’s thanks to RedBull gear shifting issue and the resurgence of Ferrari. Lets not forget the incredible performances of Lando Norris in his McLaren, and of both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in their Mercedes’, for without them, we wouldn’t have had a four way battle for the top spot until the very last lap.

The atmosphere in Singapore was phenomenal and something I was fortunate enough experience in person. The last few laps were something indescribable. The passion. The excitement. The sheer joy of the possibility of no red bulls on the podium. The battle to the end. The fireworks. The drama. All of it making it an incredible place to be.

Now, lets get into the top stories coming out of Marina Bay in the lead up to the Japanese Grand Prix.

RedBull’s shocker of a weekend ended Max Verstappen’s 10 race winning streak, ultimately giving us the first podium all season where RedBull didn’t take out the top step. In fact they didn’t take home any podium positions, truly making this their worst race weekend of the season. How did this come about you ask? Have all other teams finally caught up to the standard RedBull have set? Well no, not quite. From the moment the Bulls completed their first laps of the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Friday afternoon, both Verstappen and Perez were complaining of issues relating to their downshifts and later, upshifts as well. Despite the teams best efforts to find a timely resolution to the issue, it seemed that nothing they were able to do resolved the underlying problem and ultimately, come qualifying Saturday evening, both drivers were eliminated in Q2 for the first time since 2018.

While this is a story unto itself, its who eliminated them thats truly intriguing.

Liam Lawson, the RedBull junior and the teams current reserve driver who is presently filling in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo, managed to knock both Max Verstappen, the reigning World Champion, and Sergio Perez out of Q3 contention in what is only his third Formula One race weekend. To cap off what is an immense accomplishment in itself, Lawson followed up his outstanding qualifying result, with a ninth place finish in Sunday nights race, securing his first 2 points as an F1 driver. Something that only two of four rookies this season have managed to do thus far, and putting him into contention for a full time seat in 2024, right?

At this point in the racing calendar, I think its safe to sat that Oscar Piastri has solidified his position as rookie of the season. Race after race this season, Oscar has proven that he has what it takes to make it in this sport, with an average qualifying position of 11th and an average race finish of 12th, both of which are significantly higher than the only other rookie to have competed in every race so far this season, Logan Sargeant, who currently has an average qualifying and race finish of 17th. To cap this all off, Oscar managed a whopping 10 overtakes in Marina Bay to come home in 7th place with 6 points, after qualifying 17th due to a red flag caused by Lance Stroll’s horrific crash, which saw him unable to compete in Sunday’s race and the team with a staggering $1.2 million repair job ahead of this weekends Japanese Grand Prix.

A repair job and bill which I gather was not a welcome thought for the team, who have seen a significant downturn in form since the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this year, only boasting two podiums to Mercedes four in the same period, despite Aston Martin reporting several upgrades which were set to increase the overall performance of the car. With only seven races left this season, and an upturn in form for Ferrari, Aston Martin have a limited time to turn things around and claw back third place in the constructors championship, a feat made ever so difficult with only one car on track. So here’s to hoping they can start the come back with both cars in Japan this weekend.

Have Ferrari changed their tune about their non-existent existent number one driver? The evidence suggests that is well and truly the case, and it does not bode well for the Monegasque who has devoted his life to driving for the Italy based team. A team radio from Mercedes to George Russell early on in the Singapore Grand Prix seems to sum up where the team are currently at for the position of number one driver. “Ferrari are sacrificing Leclerc”. A statement we are not used to hearing as it has usually been the other way around. And yes, there have been conflicting reports, with some stating that Charles opted to sacrifice himself and defend Carlos from lights out with his soft tyres in order to secure the best result for the team and a 1-2 finish, however, there is no doubt that there has been a degree of favouritism towards the Spaniard for the past two races, given he has secured pole position in both. So can we really blame the team for backing the driver currently challenging RedBull, even if their strategy decisions are laughable and arguably cost them the 1-2 they were gunning for in Singapore?

Singapore was a rollercoaster of emotions for Mercedes and George Russell in particular. The team showed strong performances across the weekend, with Russell putting his car on to the front row in qualifying and Hamilton three places behind in fifth. The start of the race saw George concede 2nd place to Charles Leclerc who was on soft tires, and Lewis run wide in turn one, gaining two positions, but having to concede them once again or risk being handed a penalty from the FIA. For the most part, their races were largely uneventful, until the last laps of the race that is. For the first time all season, Mercedes were in contention for a win, and possibly even a double podium. But one slight clip of the wall at turn 10 had dreadful consequences for George and his car when they ended up in the wall on the last lap. To add salt to an already nasty wound, at the time at the time of the crash, George was sitting on the rear wing of Norris in 2nd, and itching for an overtake, but went from third position and a podium position to sixteenth in minutes, allowing teammate Lewis Hamilton to snatch the final podium position from his team mate.

The rollercoaster of emotions continued over at Alpine this weekend and ended in a not so happy birthday for Estie Bestie who DNF’d with a suspected gear box issue mid way through the race, ending his hopes for a p6 finish and a nice gift of championship points on his birthday. His teammate in Pierre Gasly managed to claw back some points for the team, finishing in sixth position himself. But this once again brings forth the question about Alpine’s reliability and their R&D programmes, given their recent string of mechanical DNF’s this season for both cars and overall lack of substantial upgrades in comparison to their nearest rivals.

Personal highlight of the weekend - meeting my papaya boys. Both Lando and Oscar we’re so sweet and so kind, even when they were in a rush or running late, they always stopped to sign and take pictures with fans and have a quick chat. Honestly the most wholesome interaction I could have ever imagined - and yes I cried. A lot.

But on to Suzuka we go for more racing action and probably some drama too.