Tour the Singapore circuit with Esteban Okon

Since 2008, 12 Grand Prix have been held on the Singapore city circuit, but after 2019, the history of this stage was temporarily interrupted due to the pandemic. Now that the race is back, there is great interest in it – also because Max Verstappen can secure a second championship title next Sunday.

Perhaps in the three years that have passed since the 12th Singapore Grand Prix, someone has managed to forget the configuration of the difficult Marina Bay circuit with its 23 turns, but the Alpine F1 team decided to remind and trusted this to Esteban Okon.

Esteban Okon: “I’ll tell you about a lap on Singapore’s Marina Bay city circuit, where we’re going to race. So we are on the straight and we are crossing the finish line – of course we are driving with the open wing of the DRS system.

Before the first corner it is important to brake later. We hit the brakes, not forgetting that the asphalt is uneven here, we shift back to third gear and try to stay closer to the right edge of the track. We overcome the third corner in second gear, when leaving it we start to accelerate, again we shift up and before the fourth corner we press as close to the wall as possible. We do the same at the exit.

Then we drive with DRS down a long straight where the track is also very rough, accelerate to 8th gear, brake late, about 70 meters before turn 7, shift to 3rd gear and overcome this very sharp left turn . At its exit, you must use a curb.

Then, before the next hairpin bend, we brake again and shift to 2nd gear and at the exit we pass very close to the barriers. Accelerate, we shift to 4th gear, to 5th, let go of the gas, go through the next left turn – to overcome it as quickly as possible, we have to stay close to the wall again.

There is a short straight, accelerate to 6th or 7th gear, brake, pass a 90 degree left turn, shift left as far as possible and downshift to 3rd gear. The track here is very narrow – this is generally the narrowest part of it – we slow down before the hairpin, put a heavy load on the front wheels, shift to 2nd gear, turn the steering wheel all the way to the left, exit the bend in a short straight line.

We accelerate – 6th gear, 7th, then about 80 meters before the fourteenth corner we slow down. In the list of the steepest curves of the ring, it ranks second and the last sector of the circle begins with it.

Then we turn left, then right, left again, at the exit we drive close to the barriers, after which we brake as late as possible for the bend that goes under the bridge. The turn is difficult, we have to try not to hit the wall while driving close to it.

We downshift one gear, overcome the right turn, then the left turn, accelerate again and on the qualifying lap the car slightly bumps into the wall here.

And now with the DRS open, we’re approaching the final bend… So we circled the Singapore highway.