Singapore GP
The most boring chaos to ever grace my television screen… the 2022 Singapore GP.
Race 17 Summary
October 2, 2022
The last Singapore GP was in 2019, and fans around the world had to wait an additional hour and 5 minutes due to the rain delay, and what a disappointment. I have a lot of thoughts, but I just don’t really care about what happened in this race. 6 cars did not finish, but the most exciting racing was between Verstappen, Hamilton, and Vettel… for P7.
Who had Vettel, Hamilton, and Verstappen battling for P7 on their silly season bingo card?
I’m not going to bother to summarize the race, because a lot happened, but not a lot of racing. My favorite content creators will likely do a MUCH better job covering this race than me, so please go watch their reviews and discussions.
FAVE CREATORS:
On the Chicane: 2022 Singapore GP Race Review. “Marium is back in the driving seat, as she returns to OTC after a break. We discuss cost caps, bad driving decisions and McLaren and Aston finally coming out on top.”
Quickstop F1: For the first time all season, I am posting before them. I am chalking this up to how little I had to say. So I’m just going to link their YouTube page. Go subscribe and watch all of their videos!
WET WEATHER
I actually support race control’s decision to delay the start procedures and race by an hour. That prevented the 3 hour clock from starting, which gave us almost a full distance race. If there had been racing here more regularly, maybe they could have started sooner, but you would have lost so much racing time if the start procedure had begun.
I do think it likely took them a little too long to enable DRS, but honestly, with all the VSC and Safety Cars, it wouldn’t have made a huge difference, because it would have been disabled several times anyways. All in all, this is probably the first time in a while that I’ve somewhat agreed with Race Control’s weather/safety decisions, so I guess that’s something.
STREET CIRCUITS
Be honest with me: has there been a truly exciting true street race this season? Not really. This generation of cars are so large and clunky, that racing around narrow streets is unbearable to watch. Monaco, Baku, and Singapore were all incredibly boring, which is a shame.
Without DRS (which again, I kinda understand), there was little to no genuine overtakes. Even Max’s rocket ship couldn’t really make its way through the pack.
I think F1 is going to have to really think about these races and how these current cars struggle to get around and overtake.
>SILVER ARROW POINTS
Let’s get into it, because I’ve got some thoughts.
>Sir Lewis seemed on fire this weekend. Topping FP1, and having his best starting position all season (P3), only missing out on pole by .05 of a second. The Red Bull fuel error, which cost Max Verstappen in qualifying set up a PERFECT scenario for Hamilton. Obviously the rain is out of the teams’ control, but the decisions each team makes are within their control. LISTEN TO YOUR WORLD CHAMPION DRIVER.
>I said this after the Dutch GP: if Merc wants a race win (especially for Lewis), then they need to start driving like underdogs, fighting and clawing their way for a victory. You have the greatest driver of all time in your car, and he had a feeling at the start of the race to start on a different set of tires. Which tires exactly, I still don’t know, but the point is that he wanted to try something else. Every other driver started on new inters, so what if… WHAT IF Lewis started on Wets? Would he have struggled later in the race? Maybe, but on a track where TRACK POSITION really matters because overtaking is limited or impossible, getting off the line and having a great start would make all the difference. Look at Sainz: abysmal race pace compared to Perez and Leclerc, but he still brought it home for P3. How? Well he was largely helped by the better jump off the line than Hamilton. It allowed him to get alongside and boop Hamilton wide. Hamilton would stay with Sainz the whole race, even riding his gear box for portions, but wasn’t able to overtake him. Starting tires were mistake no. 1 for Mercedes.
>Several times Hamilton asked to try something else, because riding behind Carlos, and off the podium doesn’t really help them. THIS is where that underdog mentality comes in. Hamilton is willing to take a risk because whatever they’re trying isn’t working, but Mercedes strategy are often resistant to taking any sort of risk. Listen, I’m risk-averse myself, but at some point you have to be willing to try SOMETHING. Hamilton isn’t winning the drivers championship this year, and Merc isn’t winning the constructors- can we just strategize 1 weekend around a race win? Who gives a crap if it doesn’t work? You’re not going to win if you don’t try something.
>Ultimately 2 small errors by Hamilton would cost him some positions, which was heartbreaking to see. I felt a little better after Verstappen also had an error, but riding behind the same car all race is frustrating, so I don’t blame either. They both were trying to make something out of nothing. I’m sure Hamilton will be hard on himself for those errors, but he has every reason to still hold his head up high. I surely don’t blame him for trying to make a move.
>George, I don’t even know what to say. Some days, it’s not your day, and that was today. Sorry buddy, but well done on nipping the fastest lap away from Perez.
WINNERS:
McLaren absolutely nailed it today. P4 and P5 when Daniel started like P16 or something is pretty incredible. Held onto the inters the longest and benefited from Tsunoda’s error. Huge haul of points, which MASSIVELY helps them in their P4 battle with Alpine (who had 2 mechanical DNFs).
PEREZ POTENTIAL PENALTY
I’m writing out my thoughts on the race before any decision has been made. I’m assuming he’ll get a 5 second penalty (if anything), and it won’t change the outcome, but who knows.
UPDATE: He violated the 10 car-length rule under the safety car not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. The determination was that he was warned for the 1st, reprimanded for the 2nd, and finally received a 5 second penalty for the 3rd. However, he was more than 5 seconds ahead of Charles, so he still wins. The whole thing feels like a full disadulation.
Onto Japan, but before you click away, I’ll leave you with a picture of my cat, who also did not enjoy the race.
