Singapore Grand Prix: Track and Stats

The temporary course will be constructed along the city streets, with the exception of a 1.2 kilometer segment with boxes, a paddock and a starting line. This is the second fastest urban circuit on the calendar – after Baku – on a lap the cars accelerate three times to around 290 kph, but it is second only to Monaco with the lowest average speed per lap.

The track is surrounded by a temporary fence of a unique design. A quarter of the 2000 blocks will be placed just before the Grand Prix, so as not to disturb residents and tourists on normal days. After the race, the fence will be dismantled to be rebuilt next year. But the main reason for pride is the artificial lighting system.

The motto of the first night race in Formula 1 history is “Light as day”. The lighting system was developed by the Italian company Valerio Maioli, which has forty years of experience in similar work in sports arenas.

The width of the track is from 10 to 15 meters, while it is necessary to direct the luminous fluxes to provide a uniform illumination sufficient for the riders and the television, to avoid glare when turning and glare in case of rain to prevent.

It is not an easy task to illuminate five kilometers of city streets, covered in some areas with trees, with unique architecture and features, but a stable light flux of 3000 lux is delivered over the entire distance – about four times more than in a football stadium.

Valerio Maioli: “We could not illuminate city streets with the principles that apply in stadiums – it is impossible to place high instrument towers here, so it was necessary to distribute the light sources evenly, to avoid dazzling the riders and the appearance of, for example, a shadow , from rival cars. There are trees growing along the roads, so the power cable had to be laid from above, along with lighting fixtures.”

The route has 240 poles connected by 108 kilometers of electrical cables and 1,500 floodlights with a power of 2,000 W each, the total lighting power is more than three million watts.

The weekend’s events take place in the evening, but the riders and teams live and work in Singapore on European time, so as not to adapt to the time zone. Practice 1 and 3 take place early, in the sunlight and under very different conditions from qualifying and the race, so the information gathered from them is not very up to date.

The asphalt compound has been specially developed for the Singapore circuit with the collaboration of Shell – engineers believe it offers 20% better grip than conventional. Every year the coating is changed in some areas, including this year, but it is not possible to achieve perfect evenness – riders complain about numerous bumps and engineers have to adjust the suspension to the maximum height during the season.

Track features

The track is rotated counterclockwise. Formally, overtaking is possible in three corners – the first, seventh and 14th, but in practice it is extremely difficult to fight for position in Singapore, so a good qualifying result, an effective start and a good strategy are important.

The speed in the slowest corner is 75 km/h, in the fastest 275 km/h. The chance that the safety car will leave is 100%, the teams will take this into account when developing a strategy.

The track requires a high degree of downforce, the load on the brakes is great. At this time of year, there are thunderstorms in Singapore almost every morning, usually the tarmac dries up completely in the afternoon, but in 2017 the race turned out to be rainy.

Nick Chester: “Marina Bay is a relatively slow track with many turns. Finding the right settings is quite tricky: you have to keep the front of the car stable when cornering, while not allowing too much understeer in slow corners.

To be successful in Singapore you need good mechanical traction, high downforce and good acceleration out of slow corners, but air resistance is not as important as in Spa and Monza.”

Weekend schedule

You can follow the progress of all Formula 1 sessions on our live streaming page. We have written instructions for watching live video broadcasts.

Tire sets given to teams for the weekend

The Singapore lap is quite slow, but the tires will have to withstand the stress of high temperatures and humidity, high corners and curb attacks, while still providing good grip. Pirelli has again opted for the softest rubber compounds for Singapore.

Performance of current riders in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel: “I love coming to this amazing and incredibly clean city. The track is interesting and very difficult, with uneven asphalt, on which the car shakes a lot – you have to drive it to the limit.

The hardest thing in Singapore is the heat and the twists and turns, of which there are many. Driving through the chicanes is not that easy, you can hardly catch your breath. On a fast lap, the last corner before the straight is extremely important: there’s an incredibly high curb that you can’t drive on or the car will fly into the air.

This is one of the toughest races on the calendar. There is no room for error here and the race is very long – in the car it sometimes seems like it goes on forever.”