After a chaotic weekend in Azerbaijan, another testing race awaits the teams and drivers as they head to the original night race in Singapore. And after some surprising results in recent events, there are a number of questions that could be answered on the streets of the Marina Bay circuit.<\/p>\n
Is Verstappen back in the title race?<\/p>\n
This is a remarkable question in so many ways. At the start of the year, you would have been surprised to be talking about Max Verstappen<\/a> not being a factor in the championship battle with a third of the season to go. Then during the summer break, you would never have expected the topic could even be suggested.<\/p>\n Back-to-back victories for Verstappen in Monza and Baku alone would not have been enough to raise the question \u2013 but coupled with Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s retirement in Azerbaijan, Verstappen has taken 35 points out of the championship leader in two races. A gap that was 104 points leaving Zandvoort now sits at 69<\/a>.<\/p>\n There were some similarities to the set-up characteristics that Verstappen was so happy with at both of the previous two circuits \u2013 thriving amid lower downforce demands \u2013 but Singapore requires a very different approach.<\/p>\n The higher downforce venue will be a true test of whether Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s recent gains \u2013 found through a combination of car development and engineering \u2013 can translate into a level of performance that can challenge McLaren<\/a> on all tracks.<\/p>\n Piastri\u2019s reaction to Baku woes<\/p>\n It was an uncharacteristically poor weekend for our championship leader in Azerbaijan, as power unit issues on Friday were followed by crashes in both Qualifying and on the opening lap of the race.<\/p>\n For the first time this season, Piastri failed to score a point, ending a streak of 44 consecutive race finishes in the process. That run puts him second on the all-time list, behind Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s record of 48, showing just how unusual it was for the Australian to slip up in such fashion.<\/p>\n While his consistency on the track has been one of Piastri\u2019s strengths, another one is the calm and methodical approach that he takes to his racing. Rarely does he get too high with the good weekends and too low with the bad ones, and you wouldn\u2019t expect to see any sort of hangover arriving in Singapore.<\/p>\n But the question is being asked of whether Verstappen is back in the fight for the title, while Norris<\/a> has also reduced the deficit to 25 points \u2013 one race victory \u2013 so Piastri will be keen to not lose further points and allow either rival to build up some momentum.<\/p>\n Singapore last year was tricky for Piastri but he did make his way through to the podium \u2013 albeit 40 seconds adrift of race-winner Norris \u2013 and we\u2019ve regularly seen him make improvements each year in his relatively short career to date.<\/p>\n Updated title permutations for McLaren<\/p>\n McLaren had a chance of winning the Teams\u2019 Championship<\/a> last time out in Azerbaijan, but a strangely messy few days saw reliability issues and driver errors combining to prevent the team from setting a new record.<\/p>\n They can still match Red Bull\u2019s mark of becoming champions with six rounds remaining this weekend in Singapore, though, and the permutations are a little more simple for them to get the job done.<\/p>\n For McLaren to be champions, they simply need to score 13 points. In that case, it doesn\u2019t matter what any of their rivals do. As a result, just one McLaren driver finishing on the podium will secure the championship for Andrea Stella<\/a>\u2019s team for a second consecutive year.<\/p>\n Only Mercedes<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> can still mathematically catch McLaren<\/a>, but Mercedes will need to outscore them by 31 points, or Ferrari outscore McLaren by 35, to be able to delay the crowning until the United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Outsider podium results<\/p>\n In the last It\u2019s Race Week feature, Baku was described as \u201ca unique venue with a chance of chaos\u201d and Saturday\u2019s Qualifying session certainly provided that. But the end result proved you don\u2019t need something crazy to happen in a race to provide an unusual podium finisher.<\/p>\n Carlos Sainz<\/a> scored his first Williams<\/a> podium in third place, having started from second and shown strong pace in a largely incident-free race. Even Liam Lawson<\/a> was outmaneuvered strategically by the two Mercedes drivers but only dropped from third to fifth, in a display of how close the field is this year.<\/p>\n What we would traditionally describe as \u2018midfield cars\u2019 are very capable of staying in top six positions with the pace they have, as they are still quick enough to defend from front-running cars and disrupt their races.<\/p>\n Sainz became the ninth podium finisher of the season, and heading to another street circuit, perhaps a tenth could be just around the corner.<\/p>\n A tough physical test<\/p>\n With 24 races per season, drivers have to be in extremely good physical shape to be able to navigate the different challenges throughout the year. When it comes to Singapore<\/a> though, that brings its own unique test.<\/p>\n As the closest race to the equator, the Singapore Grand Prix is usually run in high temperatures and humidity, even as a night race. For the drivers, the track layout itself is not overly testing \u2013 with a general lack of true high-speed corners as more 90-degree options are required due to its downtown location \u2013 but that means a low average speed.<\/p>\n