F1 - Singapore GP

The lights were bright at the breathtaking Marina Bay Circuit for round 18 of the Formula One World Championship. Who kept cool under pressure, and who faltered under the Singapore heat...

Performances

Mercedes - another very strong weekend for them! Especially George - an amazing pole lap and a superb drive to take his second win of the year. He's really reached that next level this year. Just waiting on that contract announcement... surely it's a no brainer at this point? Kimi also had another solid race, qualifying fourth and finishing fifth. The last two races have been very good from him, and Mercedes now look in a very strong position to take P2 in the WCC, but there's still a lot of racing left!

Red Bull - Another good drive from Max. He had some car balance issues and just overall couldn't match the pace of Russell and probably the McLarens but did some great defending for a number of laps near the end to hold on to second. Another disappointing weekend for Yuki after it looked like he improved in Baku.

McLaren - first of all congratulations to McLaren for winning their second consecutive Constructor's Championship. The rebuild they have done in the last 10 years is truly amazing (Ferrari wake up👀). Now to today's race. Obviously all the talk has been about the first lap incident. And imo it was aggressive from Lando but ultimately it wasn't too far. The problem is McLaren have done this to themselves! They've babied the way in which the drivers can race and now they've created this issue by not applying their own (flawed) logic to every micro incident in a race. Oscar does have the right to be upset based on how McLaren have treated their drivers this year. The only rule should be don't crash into your teammate. That's it. Not this other papaya rules micromanaging nonsense about slow pitstops and whatever! And honestly it also wasn't a good look when the team celebrated the WCC title without Oscar there. It's finally getting spicy though so hopefully the gloves are off now and we see total chaos and terrorism from the two drivers fighting for the WDC. But overall Lando probably had the measure on Oscar today for the last podium spot, although it's hard to say how much the incident affected his mentality.

Ferrari - another weekend of losing points to Red Bull. They're now only 8 points behind - with the way the form is going 4th in the WCC is a real possibility. Charles maximised the result he could have gotten today with the car to get sixth. Lewis had a very interesting race to say the least. I thought he had cooked with the soft tyre strategy at the end but then of course the brakes had to fail. And after watching the onboard the penalty was probably fair and another 8th sums up the season for him. But Lewis became the first driver to set fastest laps in 16 different seasons today! (Clutching at straws but let me have it)

Aston Martin - a great result for Fernando, coming back from a slow pit stop to get seventh! He had probably the best racing action of the race with Hadjar and got some big points to move Aston Martin closer to that P6 in the WCC. Stroll dropped the most Lance Stroll performance of all time with a Q1 exit and 13th in the race. (Also Fernando's team radio this race was classic)

Haas - a very good weekend from Ollie Bearman. Good pace to get into Q3 and followed it up with a good points finish in P9. Ocon got outmatched this weekend in pretty much every aspect. (also how does 19th in the championship have 18 points this season? The field is so close.)

Williams - both cars got DSQ'd from qualifying for a rear wing infringement. Carlos did great to get a point in P10 from the back of the field. Albon had a pretty anonymous race.

Alpine - the car is abysmal but Franco has definitely been improving in the last few races. But yes it's time for my weekly Alpine rant. This team is beyond embarrassing. This team has won multiple championships and races and always been a historic part of F1. It's sad to see.

Racing Bulls - Hadjar did well to get into Q3 as per usual. His qualifying performances are definitely his biggest skill. He lost out to a good battle with Fernando and ultimately didn't finish in the points. Lawson had a fairly average weekend.

Sauber - the car didn't really have too much pace, although Hulkenberg put in his best qualifying performance of the year. All focus on 2026 here.

Race rating - 5/10 - I have no idea how to rank this one properly because we didn't see any of the good stuff!!!! Honestly. They showed ZERO of Carlos's overtakes through the field, ignored the Hamilton and Alonso battle right at the end to show us the crowd (?) and waited 6 laps to show when Kimi got past Charles. So I'm sure the race would have been more entertaining if we actually saw that instead of Lando driving in Max's dirty air for 97% of the race! Also another one-stop from Pirelli, this is also becoming a weekly rant of mine.

Team radio of the race - basically every message from Fernando Alonso this race! And the headloss at the end was hilarious😂

Driver of the race - Verstappen, Alonso, Bearman and Sainz are all good shouts. But George Russell gets this one for a stunning pole and a dominant drive to win the Singapore Grand Prix! A fantastic season so far.

Next weekend - the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. A great place for Formula One to race in America in my opinion, and it holds the record for the most attended F1 event ever, with 440 000 people attending the 2022 weekend! The circuit is one of the only counter-clockwise ones on the calendar, and turn 1 for me is the best part of the track, with the steep climb up the hill and the extremely wide entry. The wide entry into corners (first started by India in 2011) is one of the best features, as it allows for multiple lines to be taken into a corner. It takes inspiration from turns such as the infamous Turn 8 at Istanbul and Maggots-Becketts at Silverstone. Some of the best races here over the years have been: 2012 (a very tense battle between Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso), 2015 (a classic wet race with a lot of battles and incidents, and who can forget the Hamilton/Rosberg clash?), 2018 (Raikkonen's last win and a great Hamilton/Verstappen battle) and 2021 (Verstappen wins by 1.333 seconds ahead of title rival Hamilton)

The next project is coming along nicely👀👀👀

Also RIP Roscoe Hamilton🙏🙏🙏