As if Singapore wasn’t already a tough enough challenge to get right for F1’s teams and drivers, this time the anxiety is ramped up as it becomes a sprint weekend.

The varying temperatures and times of day they’ll be out on track isn’t the only major talking point, though. A controversial upgrade, snakes, a long running issue potentially fixed for a champion and much, much more were covered on day one inside the F1 paddock.

Norris ‘hopeful’ his car issue is fixed

Lando Norris has been carrying a straightline speed issue on his McLaren that’s been costing him between one and two tenths of a second across the Baku and Sepang weekends to team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The exact cause hasn’t been revealed, but it was indicated as being some kind of fuel injection issue in Baku.

Asked if he was hopeful that things would be back to normal this weekend with changes his McLaren team has made, Norris said: “Yeah, hopeful. Need to get on track first and see how much better it is.

“It’s obviously also a circuit where straights are not the highest priority and not as detrimental as the last few weekends. But nevertheless, you always want to go down the straights as quick as what you should be able to. It’s always tough when you come out of corners better and end up going slower.

“It’s been a frustrating two weekends trying to figure out what the issue’s been and why there’s just been a constant lack of straightline speed and performance, especially in this kind of battle we’ve been in, the last two qualifyings – it’s been two or three positions. So, it’s cost me quite a lot.

“At the same time, there’s obviously things I can do better as well. But confident that the team have done a good job. They put a lot of work into trying to figure out things.” – Josh Suttill

Russell suggested having ‘slower’ Mercedes

Even before the start of last Sunday’s race in Malaysia, George Russell put forward the idea of him reverting to the older specification Mercedes in Singapore, a decision the team has now taken.

That will help Mercedes understand whether the major upgrade it brought to Malaysia is actually a step forward. There’s nothing in the data to suggest it isn’t, but such a huge defeat to Red Bull on its debut has raised question marks.

Russell may well see this as an opportunity to do something different on a weekend where he has a grid penalty to take for new power unit components.

He said he was 50/50 about it before the race at Sepang, but the subsequent need to take an engine penalty following his retirement there meant it became a “no-brainer”.

It should help Mercedes get crucial answers about the upgrade as it’s significant for looming deadlines on 2027 car direction.

Singapore being a sprint weekend means both drivers are effectively locked into their specification from the start and, oddly for this weekend, it might leave Russell hoping Mercedes’ upgrade was actually a downgrade. – JS

Ocon won’t race in 2027 if F1 snubs him

A week on from Esteban Ocon’s exit from Haas at the end of this year being confirmed, the one-time grand prix winner has softened his stance slightly on looking ahead to a year on the sidelines.

When it was first announced, Ocon did not want to contemplate being without a drive and repeating his 2019 spell on the sidelines.

But the reality is there is no immediate vacancy so Ocon needs a late twist to happen in the driver market to free up space for him.

He is adamant he will not abandon F1 and seek refuge in an alternate series, though. Ocon had been linked with a move to sportscars but, as reported by The Race previously, he feels he belongs in F1.

“That’s where I deserve to be, if I look at the results and what I’ve done,” he said. “I want to be racing in Formula 1 in the next five, seven years. So I will keep pushing to be in that position.

“In the near future, that’s the only thing I’m looking at so far.”

But Ocon has conceded he will look for a reserve drive somewhere to stay close to F1 and aim to get back on the grid again further down the line. – Scott Mitchell-Malm

Audi’s F1 engine won’t like Singapore

Audi has made no secret of the fact that its Achilles heel this year is engine power, with an obvious deficit to the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull when it comes to top speed.

This has exposed it to some tough weekends at power sensitive tracks like Monza and Baku, where even having what it thinks is the fifth best chassis has not made up in the corners for what it loses on the straights.

So you would think that the twisty Singapore track would be a venue that Audi would rubbing hands in glee about.

Instead, it’s heading into the weekend quite guarded about what it can achieve because one of the takeaways from Malaysia last week was that its power unit does not like the heat.

As Nico Hulkenberg explained: “We have to be cautious and careful. I think Malaysia brought some new things to light and these kinds of climatic conditions are not so favourable at the moment for our PU.”

While Hulkenberg did not offer any details on what it was about the heat that the Audi engine did not like, the most likely explanation is that it suffers more than rivals because of its large turbo.

Larger turbos are more difficult to spool up, more so when the air is less dense in the heat, plus throw in some extra water molecules from high humidity and the challenges can ramp up dramatically.

Nothing is lost yet, but with the current generation of cars being so dependent on how the power unit performs, Audi is mindful that a strong chassis may not be enough even when there are plenty of corners. – Jon Noble

There’s a weird divide over F1 cooling vests

There’s a strange divide over the need for F1 cooling vests right now, with drivers split into three camps.

The first (and most populated) is drivers who think cooling vests are pointless. Isack Hadjar even went as far as to say they “should be banned”.

Second are the drivers who like the cooling vests. Williams drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz are particularly pleased with their team’s, with Sainz even half-joking “If there’s one thing as a team we’ve done well on development this year it’s the cooling vest.” 

Then there’s odd third camp of George Russell, who is the biggest vocal proponent of cooling vests, but can’t actually use one right now because Mercedes can’t commit the resources to developing a system for its 2026 car. 

There is a cost cap allowance made for vests, but as Russell pointed out in Singapore, “we need the people to design the hardware, to manufacture the stuff, and that’s people you’re taking resources away from something else”. 

Russell said he’d be using the cool vest at every race, other than cold races like Las Vegas, if he could. 

Instead, he’ll have to tackle this fourth ‘heat hazard’ F1 weekend of the year without one. – JS

Two unexpected Aston Martin boosts

Singapore is already bucking the trend for Aston Martin and Honda this season as they go into a race weekend more confident than usual.

Fernando Alonso’s eighth place in Malaysia last week was a rare boost for the struggling partnership and this event should suit the package even more, by hiding its worst deficiencies.

This goes for the chassis, which is better in lower speed ranges, and Honda’s underpowered engine. Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack even went as far as declaring the team “quite confident for this weekend”!

The Sepang result is only so useful given it was assisted by circumstances in the race – including the retirement of George Russell, and Lando Norris going off behind the safety car – but there were handy lessons that could apply in Singapore too.

Notably, Honda found that the wet running at the start of the race made the energy harvesting conditions more favourable which gave it valuable lessons in how this impacted energy management and the combustion behaviour inside the engine.

It hopes this can improve the package’s driveability in energy-rich conditions – like Singapore’s will be.

Malaysia also pointed to an Aston Martin car strength. Krack reckons that being surprisingly competitive there was influenced by the rough track surface reducing grip – which means more time is spent in grip-limited conditions and every corner moves generally into a lower speed range, where the Aston is stronger. – SMM

Malaysia software bug patch repeated

The threat of rain lingers in Singapore this weekend – and if it is wet, the update that was rushed out to solve last week’s extremely disruptive “software bug” in Malaysia will be used again.

A number of cars lost power on the formation lap in Sepang after some cars were running at very low engine RPM in certain parts of the lap where there was also a 250kW MGU-K power reduction, creating an unforeseen scenario tied directly to the settings the FIA imposes during wet-weather conditions.

To fix this and allow the race to start properly, the FIA worked out and released an updated software configuration and half an hour later all teams and manufacturers had completely integrated it.

A proper update will be issued for the United States GP at the end of October but in the meantime, if it rains in Singapore this weekend, it will continue with that interim solution. – SMM

Unique decompression tactic for Bottas

Valtteri Bottas has shaken off his Malaysia disappointment and reset himself for Singapore with a unique decompression tactic – cycling more than 200 miles in the days between the two races, including through the jungle at night.

Spurred on by a joke from his professional cyclist partner Tiffany Cromwell, Bottas enlisted some local expertise to plot a route from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to Singapore’s Marina Bay area.

His three-day trip included cycling around 100 miles on Monday and Tuesday after the Sepang race, which Bottas spun out in. Among the wildlife Bottas encountered were a cobra, a python and a monitor lizard he claims he had to hop over on his bike.

Bottas also said he got chased by a stray dog at one point, and stuck behind a group of cows. Fortunately he did not encounter anything dangerous at night – although he did admit: “The noise in there is like…Then your mind starts to play games of what is out there. Who knows what is out there?”

Bottas said it helped him get rid of the frustration from Malaysia and “it definitely cleared my mind immediately” with his attention now on a hopefully better Singapore weekend for back-of-the-grid Cadillac.

It remains the only team not to score a point this season, and need some help for that to change. Bottas and team-mate Sergio Perez are optimistic that this could be the kind of track and race that can play into their hands – and it’s possibly the last opportunity for that to happen. – SMM