Proceedings in Singapore weren’t fairly as compelling in comparison with these in Azerbaijan every week in the past. There was no battle for the lead, nor was there an actual three-team battle on the entrance; as an alternative, this was a championship big-picture race.
Lando Norris put the sphere to the sword, however Max Verstappen gamely mitigated the injury to his championship lead – after which stated little about it afterwards as he staged an almost-silent protest throughout the official press conferences.
PLUS: How Norris shrugged off two touches with the wall to dominate in Singapore
However wait, there’s extra! Pink Bull’s presence on the rostrum got here after a Friday night time turnaround in fortunes because of Sebastien Buemi’s stint within the simulator, whereas Ferrari’s early tempo appeared to descend considerably after the opening pair of observe periods.
McLaren’s ‘mini-DRS’ story reached its crescendo, Mercedes struggled within the warmth, and it additionally seemed as if Daniel Ricciardo had accomplished his farewell tour to 18th (albeit with the quickest lap) as RB seems set to reinstate Liam Lawson to the seat.
Listed below are the important thing tales we picked up on throughout the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
1. Norris’ mission ‘continues to be on’ after Verstappen-esque rout (Jake Boxall-Legge)

Norris and McLaren “took the piss” with their opening stint radio messages earlier than romping to victory, based on Christian Horner
Photograph by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Photographs
A 20-second hole between first and second by the twenty fifth lap relatively evokes reminiscences of most given races in 2023, when Verstappen fortunately cruised into the space and constructed a wide range of unassailable leads. Or Lewis Hamilton within the late 2010s. Or Michael Schumacher within the early 2000s.
Norris can do it too. The McLaren MCL38 had a really distinct tempo benefit in Singapore, as staff principal Andrea Stella reckoned that “on this [higher-downforce] configuration, I feel it has the higher aerodynamic effectivity throughout the grid”, however Norris nonetheless wanted to benefit from the instruments at his disposal. And, in contrast to his different pole place conversions of late, Norris nailed the beginning and held the lead into the primary nook. He then saved it on lap one, and disappeared into the aether.
Race engineer Will Joseph requested Norris to construct a five-second lead by “the mid-teens”, and the Briton over-delivered in managing that by the top of lap 10. 5 laps later, his benefit had doubled. There was scarcely something that Verstappen may actually do to cease himself from being on the receiving finish of his regular get together trick.
In fact, there have been two moments with the wall that might have stifled Norris’ snowball on one other day, however he managed to shake them off fairly shortly relatively than retreat inside himself on the merest trace of contact.
To win the title, Norris “merely” wants to drag six extra of these out of the bag, maximise his factors benefit to Verstappen, and attempt to win all three dash races. How exhausting can that be?
2. Ferrari promised a problem earlier than qualifying catastrophe (Jake Boxall-Legge)

Leclerc’s race unravelled behind slower automobiles after a disappointing qualifying
Photograph by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Photographs
Charles Leclerc was quickest in FP1, and underneath a hundredth slower than Norris in FP2. The long-run tempo in that second session instructed that Ferrari is perhaps onto one thing good as soon as extra, every week after Leclerc netted pole and challenged Oscar Piastri for victory in Azerbaijan. The early indications have been that Leclerc is perhaps Norris’ biggest challenger in Singapore.
However Ferrari’s tempo appeared to evaporate underneath the warmth of FP3. The staff had partly anticipated this, anticipating issues to progress as soon as extra in qualifying; certainly, Leclerc was on the sharp finish by the shut of Q2, even when Pink Bull had superior within the order in a single day.
Then got here the turning level: Carlos Sainz lit up the rears as he ready to open his first try at a scorching lap in Q3, incomes a one-way ticket into the Flip 17/18 barrier. This nixed Leclerc’s opening run, and the Monegasque’s subsequent effort after the purple flag had disappeared opened whereas his tyres have been too chilly and went too deep onto the Flip 1 kerb.
His last time was solely ok for seventh, 0.004s shy of Nico Hulkenberg, however it was chalked off for monitor limits. Thus, Leclerc and Sainz have been largely out of place on the fifth row of the grid, which relatively constricted their efforts all through the remainder of the grand prix.
3. Why Max went mute in FIA press conferences (Jake Boxall-Legge)

Verstappen’s off-track fallout with the FIA dominated headlines
Photograph by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Photographs
Right here’s a potted historical past of why Verstappen instantly adopted a considerably laconic method to the FIA press convention on Saturday and Sunday. Within the Thursday presser, Verstappen dropped an F-bomb. Per a current directive within the FIA, swearing was going to be punished extra harshly, and thus Verstappen was given the equal of neighborhood service.
The Dutchman believed that this was, in his phrases, “foolish”. As such, he made some extent of offering solely curt solutions to questions whereas sat on the press convention couch. It was harking back to Marshawn Lynch’s 2015 Tremendous Bowl media session, the place he merely uttered the phrase “I’m simply right here so I don’t get fined”. “I do know that I’ve to reply,” stated Verstappen, in clarification of his malicious compliance. “Nevertheless it would not say how lengthy it’s important to reply for.”
And Verstappen was genuinely aggrieved that the FIA had punished him so harshly for swearing, feeling that he had helped the governing physique up to now voluntarily with different initiatives and that he was being singled out. To his credit score, he was blissful to area the media’s questions exterior of the press convention room, the place he spoke of his displeasure.
“I imply, these sorts of issues undoubtedly determine my future as effectively,” he admitted. “When you possibly can’t be your self, it’s important to take care of these sorts of foolish issues…I feel now, I am at a stage of my profession that I do not wish to be coping with this on a regular basis. It is actually tiring.”
In different Pink Bull information, the staff loved a major turnaround after a tough Friday; in a single day set-up work on the simulator acquired the staff right into a a lot better window with the tyres and Verstappen reported a lot better stability by the plethora of lower-speed corners on the monitor. It did not completely work out on Sergio Perez‘s aspect of the storage, however it’s been identified for a while that the Mexican is far more delicate to the RB20’s flaws.
4. McLaren’s ‘mini-DRS’ will get shut down (Jake Boxall-Legge)

McLaren’s modern rear-wing answer was modified after a request by the FIA, regardless of passing checks
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs
The higher rear wing aspect on the McLaren MCL38 had tongues wagging after the Baku race, as onboard footage of Oscar Piastri’s automobile confirmed the underside corners of the wing creaking open very barely on the two.2-kilometre (1.37 mile) stretch alongside Neftchilar Avenue.
A bit perception into how this works: the higher and decrease components are separated by what is called a “slot hole”, which has an outlined measurement. The slot hole breaks the wing up into two components, permitting airflow to remain hooked up to a higher curvature and minimises the interruption to the quantity of downforce created.
However on a protracted straight, you actually don’t want that downforce. And, relative to the dimensions of the lengthy seafront stretch of highway, the DRS zone is relatively small. If the slot hole is opened barely extra, then the wing begins to stall; it not stays hooked up to the underside of the higher aspect, reducing the downforce and by affiliation, the drag. It handed all static flex checks, however McLaren developed it to open at a given velocity to dump extra drag and push the acceleration up. This actually helped Piastri hold forward of Leclerc throughout the Azerbaijan race.
There have been no formal protests towards the wing design, however McLaren was instructed by the FIA to change it in order that it didn’t open up with out DRS utilized. This was not a function of the higher-downforce Singapore wing, however it could immediate a change for races like Las Vegas – which contains a comparatively lengthy straight.
5. Mercedes’ “painful night” with a scorching Singapore circuit (James Newbold)

Neither Hamilton nor Russell attended post-race media duties after affected by “overheating”
Photograph by: Glenn Dunbar
The chirpy feedback from Mercedes drivers on Saturday night time about “night time and day” set-up enhancements that allowed Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to annex row two lower a pointy distinction to Sunday. Neither of the drivers have been in a match state to conduct regular post-race media engagements on account of warmth exhaustion after slipping to fourth and sixth place finishes.
After being usurped by Oscar Piastri, Russell complained over the radio of affected by understeer and oversteer, however did at the least hold Charles Leclerc at bay. Hamilton was compelled into an early cease for exhausting tyres to ditch the softs he’d began with and could not repel the Ferrari on his a lot older rubber, the four-time Singapore winner’s early predictions that “you are killing me with this offset” proving well-founded.
Workforce boss Toto Wolff accepted that choosing softs, which didn’t enable Hamilton to vault forward of Max Verstappen off the road as had been hoped, “was the flawed determination” however was frank in his evaluation that it proved educational.
“It doesn’t disguise away from the truth that the automobile is just too sluggish,” he stated, having labelled Sunday “a very painful night”.
“We battle for the time being at tracks which are scorching and are robust on traction; right here and Baku,” Wolff defined. “However that is no excuse. It’s simply for the time being not what we count on from ourselves, as a result of in case your quickest automobile is a minute behind the chief it’s simply tough to just accept.”
6. Ricciardo’s time seems over as he admits “this might be it” (Ewan Gale)

Has Ricciardo packed his luggage and closed his profession on F1?
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photographs
Rumours swirled forward of the weekend that Daniel Ricciardo could be coming into his last occasion as an F1 driver, with RB set to advertise Liam Lawson for the US Grand Prix onwards.
The Australian didn’t make it by Q1 regardless of promising observe tempo and, after struggling to make headway having began on softs within the grand prix, his staff pitted him on the finish of the race to set a quickest lap.
Talking afterward, he instructed media that it wasn’t a “fairytale ending”, the closest he got here to confirming he could be bowing out of the championship. However in fact, aside from the 2021 Italian Grand Prix victory with McLaren, there was nothing fairytale-like about his time on the grid since switching from Pink Bull to Renault for 2019.
His second likelihood having initially been dropped for 2023 was nearly squandered earlier than it started when he broke a bone in his hand at Zandvoort final 12 months and regardless of glimpses of a return to kind, he hasn’t kicked on sufficiently to warrant a continuation. Little question his persona will likely be missed however, if that is the top of the highway, there cannot be a lot to argue about.
7. Rookie race seems set to be on (Ewan Gale)

Will the rookies be lining up for a dash post-season?
Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photographs
One of the complained about points in F1 for the time being is the right way to present rookies and younger drivers with expertise in present automobiles, given the dearth of testing in comparison with yesteryear.
To its credit score, the championship has been proactive in attempting to open doorways for such alternatives – TPCs [Testing of Previous Cars] and the FP1 rookie periods permitting F1 groups to place new blood behind the wheel for important run time.
Different concepts have come and gone, comparable to wildcard entries – that are employed by the F1 Academy sequence with the identical aim in thoughts – however the idea of giving rookies a race to compete in at the Abu Dhabi post-season test, relatively than ambling round for kilometre after kilometre was floated by staff bosses earlier this 12 months and Autosport understands that the proposal will likely be inexperienced lit for the top of the 12 months.
Whereas Pirelli’s tyre testing will nonetheless take up a lot of the day’s focus, it’s understood that the plan could be to carry a brief qualifying session earlier than the dash – although finer particulars are but to be finalised.
How a lot assist this can give younger drivers will solely be seen when it truly occurs, however the thought course of, at the least, is sound.

F1 has a month break earlier than heading Stateside for the US GP
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs