While McLaren will surely clinch the constructors’ championship this weekend, their drivers will be alert to the rising threat from Max Verstappen in their points fight.
Here are the talking points for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Is a Verstappen win really that unlikely?
He may have won at every other venue on the calendar but Verstappen has neither started nor finished first at Singapore’s Marina Bay circuit.
Will that change this weekend? The venue has been something of a bogey circuit for Red Bull in recent years. Even in their dominant 2023 season, this was the only track they failed to win at, Verstappen failing to reach Q3 and finishing fifth.
However they were in much better shape last year. Lando Norris may have controlled proceedings for McLaren but Verstappen was able to follow him home in second place.
This is still likely to be a track which suits McLaren better than Red Bull. However it lacks the kind of long-radius corners which the RB21 particularly struggled with at tracks like the Hungaroring and Zandvoort. If Verstappen can produce the kind of one-lap magic we’ve seen from him before this year, he could just pull it off.
McLaren’s overdue coronation
The orange team’s failure to clinch their second consecutive constructors’ championship crown was one of the biggest surprises of the last weekend in Baku. But don’t bet against them getting the job done this weekend.
They arrive in Singapore with 333 points over closest rivals Mercedes, while Ferrari are another four points adrift. After this race there will only be 303 points available for each team, so one of McLaren’s rivals must take a 31-point bite out of their lead to keep the constructors’ title fight going until Austin.
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Alpine’s best chance for late points?
At the opposite end of the constructors’ table lie Alpine, who sank there after the Spanish Grand Prix. They’ve now gone four races without scoring – their longest such run of the season so far – and remain the only team who haven’t managed to get both cars in the points yet.
Will they make it into the top 10 again before the season is over? Singapore may represent their best chance. The A525 is weak on the straights but Singapore has few of those. If they can’t get it done at this track their prospects look less encouraging for the remaining races.
No sign of the C6?
Formula 1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli trumpeted the introduction of the C6 compound this year as an extra-soft option which would be ideal for street circuits. But they haven’t nominated for this weekend’s street race nor the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix, where track temperatures are typically far cooler.
“Evaluations carried out before the summer break ruled out the softest tyre in the 2025 range, because the forces exerted on the tyres and the high temperatures at this event might have created some overheating issues,” said Pirelli in a statement. “In fact, in this race, thermal stress is the main cause of tyre performance degradation.”
Teams avoided racing on the C6 last weekend, preferring the harder compounds. As at previous races where the tyre was nominated, some even preferred the harder tyres for qualifying as well.
Crashgate in court
As F1 prepares for its 16th Singapore Grand Prix, the result of the first race at Marina Bay remains very much a sore point for some. Felipe Massa is heading to court over the FIA’s handling of the notorious ‘Crashgate’ episode, when Renault (now Alpine) arranged for Nelson Piquet Jnr to cause a Safety Car period to help Fernando Alonso win the inaugural race.
Massa is hoping that if the court sides with him he might be recognised as the driver who should have won that year’s world championship instead of Lewis Hamilton.
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Ricciardo’s fastest lap farewell
Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix produced the circumstances which led F1 to drop the bonus point for fastest lap. Having loudly told everyone what a brilliant idea it was when they brought it in six years ago, it was quietly shelved after they admitted it had become a “controversial topic”.
That was clearly the case at this race last year when Daniel Ricciardo, driving what turned out to be his final race for Red Bull’s junior team, conveniently pitted for fresh tyres and set the fastest lap at the end of the race, depriving Verstappen’s championship rival Norris of the bonus, despite being unable to score the point himself. Are there any more creative ways Red Bull’s second-string squad can help the main team this weekend?
Are you going to the Singapore Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Singapore for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Singapore Grand Prix? Have your say below.
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