62 laps of the 4.927km Marina Bay Circuit 3rd October Practice 1 10:30 - 11:30 3rd October Practice 2 14:00 - 15:00 4th October Practice 3 10:30 - 11:30 4th October Qualifying 14:00 - 15:00 5th October Race 13:00 - 15:00 All times are UK times Poll closes before Quali.
If it’s not OK to post this on here , please feel free to remove it Ched / Mods Singapore GP declared F1's first 'heat hazard' race please log in to view this image IMAGESOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren wearing a cooling vest during practice for this year's Spanish Grand Prix By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent in Singapore Formula 1's governing body has declared this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix a 'heat hazard' race. The FIA's ruling, triggered because temperatures are predicted to exceed 31C amid high humidity in the tropical environment, means drivers could be using cooling vests during the race. Using the vests is not mandatory but teams must fit the system to their cars to ensure any drivers not using them does not gain an advantage by having a lighter car. The Singapore Grand Prix marks the first time a race has been designated as a heat hazard under a new rule that was introduced this year. However, it will not be the first time drivers have used the vests - teams have been testing them intermittently through the year. Mercedes' George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), tried it out in Bahrain earlier this year and said on Thursday: "Not everybody finds the top comfortable, but I think some find it more comfortable than others, and of course over time you'll be able to adjust it to your own preferences. "But the concept is good, and when you're racing in 90% humidity and the cockpits are getting on for 60C, it's a bit of a sauna inside the car, so I think we all welcome it." Williams driver Carlos Sainz, also a GPDA director, said that the FIA's decision to declare a heat hazard was "fair". "Only hot is not too bad for us," Sainz said. "We have that, for example, in Hungary where it gets really hot but it's not humid. "Humid on its own is not too bad at all if it's not too hot. But when it's 28C, 30C degrees plus humid, that's when it gets to Singapore levels and it's tough." Singapore has long been renowned as the toughest grand prix because of the combination of heat, humidity, the length of the race, which runs close to the maximum two-hour limit, and the bumpy track surface at Marina Bay. How to follow Singapore Grand Prix on the BBC Published 1 hour ago 'Very excited' - Dunne leaves McLaren programme Published 48 minutes ago Why was the heat hazard rule brought in? The idea of a driver-cooling system was intimated after the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, when heat and humidity left several drivers on the brink of collapse. A number of drivers needed medical attention after the race, Frenchman Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet, and Williams driver Logan Sargeant retired because he could not cope with the conditions any longer. The drivers have had a mixed response to the vests, with some feeling they are uncomfortable and not especially effective. Sainz said: "Teams are managing to make it work better and better every time we run it. At the beginning, we had it to work more or less for half an hour. Hopefully now the whole system can work at least for an hour. "It's a two-hour race. I've done it 10 times in Singapore. If it breaks or it doesn't work, I'm not worried. I'll do the race and jump out fresh like I always do. But if it works, it's better, because then you suffer a bit less." Sainz said he had used the system in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year, and it lasted about 15-20 minutes. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso said: "The system works. The shirt itself, the material is a little bit thicker with all the system on it so it is less comfortable. It is a trade-off, it is less comfy when you drive it but it is a little bit cooler." How does the system work? Temperatures in the cockpit of an F1 car can be more than 40C, and drivers are wearing several layers of fireproof clothing in addition to a balaclava and helmet, so overheating is a serious concern. The driver wears a fireproof vest fitted with a tube through which a cooled liquid is fed by a pump. The rules say that the system should last for the entire race, but not all teams have managed to make it run for that long. And the complication is that when the system stops working, it can make the drivers hotter than they would otherwise have been. That's because the vest fitted with the cooling system is an insulator and the liquid can end up hotter than the ambient temperature because of the temperature of the cars. Teams have approached the design and fitting of the system in different ways depending on their individual cars. Some have fitted the cooling device and pump at the front of the chassis, others by the side-impact structures beside the cockpit and others inside the chassis. Regarding its overall comfort, Russell said that the tubes on the front and the back of the vest are connected and "when you go through high-speed corners in the G-force, you're feeling these tubes on the side of your ribs". He added: "I think that was definitely an issue for me at the beginning. They made some changes, it has been improved, but as I said, still you have these tubes going around your ribs, which is not the perfect place for it. There's not many high-speed corners here in Singapore, and high lateral G-forces, so I don't think it would be a major issue."
For random reasons I’ve missed to actually watch this race 2 years in a row, as such every year I’m dissatisfied again by the layout changes at the end of the track! Really looking forward to seeing what RedBull/Max can do at a different style of circuit and whether they can keep putting some pressure on the McLarens, although this really should be a Papaya circuit. It also seems like a track that might suit Ferrari more than Merc, so some other interesting battles to watch upfront. Physically tough races, always seem to be a challenge for the rookies in their first year, so with 5-6 in the field we might get some chaos? It’s a fools game predicting anything behind the top 4 teams, but I’ll stick my neck out anyway and suggest Williams should go well here.
AM looking fast (well, Alonso is, at least). I feel I've said that a few times this season and been let down on the Sunday.
Bit of a chaotic second session, but it doesn’t look like McLaren are off in the distance. RedBull have definitely become more consistent and performant out of the box, but it also feels like McLaren are closer to the pack recently. Given everyone has basically stopped developing and is just optimising their car now, I wonder if they’ve basically hit the ceiling of that, having hit the ground running at the start of the year?
