🚦Round 2 in the Streets, KMag Back🚦

Good morning. Round 2 in the streets, folks. Right off the back of a cinematic racing experience at Baku, we are racing in Singapore, the home of the original night race. If you thought Baku was a crazy street circuit, wait for the narrow, winding roads in Singapore. The land of the persistent safety car.

This is a race where literally anything goes. Ferraris were favored to dominate the streets until Piastri wielded his Jedi-like racecraft. Kevin Magnussen is back and ready to cause chaos. Red Bull is on the back foot.

This season is not for the faint of heart, so buckle up.

-Jake Williamson

🏎 The Original Night Race

The Circuit

The Marina Bay circuit was brought online in 2008 as the first night race in F1 history. The track had to be fitted with thousands of special lights that provided ample visibility without adding glare for the drivers.

It’s a street circuit in every way. Even though the layout was changed in 2023 to reduce the number of corners from 23 to 19, the track is still a narrow, bumpy, humid, and heart-pounding thrill ride around the streets of Singapore.

The drivers will be sawing away at the wheel as they navigate this circuit and keeping their eyes on the crucial passing zones at the end of the, now, four DRS zones. There will be ample action this weekend and my predictions are likely to be very wrong, but I will still make them.

Fun fact - The Safety Car has made an appearance in every GP held here since 2008!

Last 3 Winners

A Ferrari, Red Bull, and Ferrari won the last three races but will we see a third constructor take the top step this year?

• Carlos Sainz last year

• Sergio Perez in 2022

• Sebastian Vettel 2019

What happened last year

Carlos Sainz qualified on pole and kept it there with a cheeky move to keep Norris in DRS range in the closing laps of the race. He kept Norris in DRS range to make it harder for cars behind to pass Norris and challenge Sainz for the win. Russell crashed out of the race at turn 10 in the last lap which held the safety car streak for the circuit.

My top 5

P1 - Lando Norris

P2 - Charles Leclerc

P3 - Oscar Piastri

P4 - George Russell

P5 - Fernando Alonso

Race Predictions

1. Williams gets double points again

2. A fourth DRS zone added could shuffle Sainz out of the running especially with a damaged car from Baku.

3. Red Bull doesn’t finish in the top 7 (I am iffy on this one but sticking to it)

4. Papaya rules will be challenged again this race (maybe a switching of positions for the two drivers at McLaren).

5. Haas and VCARB cause the safety car. KMag is back and ready to fight. These seem like the likely candidates.

🌎 McLaren’s Mini DRS

This is for the F1 nerds out there. If you fall into the “know it all” category of F1 followers, sit back and relax while we explore the latest aerodynamic complaints on the grid. 

Let’s face it: most people don’t care about the technical regulations in F1, let alone how the teams decide to interpret those rules, but the latest on flexible appendages has got the paddock in a bit of a frenzy so much so that Ferrari has moved up the newest iteration of its front wing to debut in Singapore instead of Austin.

We last heard about the bendy front wings a few races back when Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, called out McLaren and Mercedes for employing a front wing that flexes under aerodynamic load. 

Aerodynamic load simply refers to the “weight” of the air on the bodywork of the cars. As the cars move through the air faster, they generate more downforce on the wings especially. That downforce can be thought of as more weight on those pieces. It’s like being sucked against your seat when a rollercoaster accelerates. 

The controversial design concept of the flexible wing passes all static load tests from the FIA, but when placed under high aero load and when the cars reach top speeds, these wings (front and rear) will flex and sort of flatten out. This flattening out reduces downforce and, therefore, reduces drag. If this sounds familiar, it should be because you see this on every track in the form of the Drag Reduction System (DRS). At certain points on the track, the driver can open their upper DRS flap on the rear wing, which, you guessed it, reduces downforce and drag. 

DRS can lead to an extra 10-15 kph which helps drivers pass cars even from the leading car’s dirty air. Basically, DRS is a push-to-pass button that makes racing more exciting!

DRS is controversial enough with race fans, but the latest technical innovation/happy accident has fans and teams up in arms. That’s the flexible wing concept. McLaren and Mercedes took advantage of the technical regs, allowing a bit of flexibility in constructing the wings and creating a front wing that acts like DRS by flattening out on long straights. This allows for high grip in the corners but low drag on the straights. 

But it doesn’t stop there. McLaren has been accused of employing this bendy design in their rear wing as well. Eagle-eyed fans spotted a slight opening of the upper DRS flap of the McLaren on the long straight at Baku. This was especially prominent at the outer leading edges of the DRS flap. The Accusations from teams and fans include McLaren benefitting from a 1-2 kph boost from what is being called the “mini DRS.”

The FIA has taken notice of this and maybe clamping down on this this year or next, but rest assured one of two things will come from this:

1. The FIA will clamp down on this by introducing new static load testing and aerodynamic load testing on track. 

2. The other teams will want a piece of this action and implement their own version of it.

The latter is already happening, with Ferrari bringing a flexible front-wing concept to the Singapore GP this weekend.

🚀Headline Sprint

🏁Kevin Magnussen is back with zero penalty points: Kevin Magnussen will resume his journey with Haas after serving his one-race ban in Baku. KMag accumulated 2 extra penalty points for a pretty minor contact moment with Pierre Gasly in Monza, which led to his race ban, which comes from accruing 12 points on his license. When you serve your ban, your points reset to zero, and you can race again. When asked how he is feeling ahead of Singapore, Kevin responded, “You get punished and then you come back and you're like 'I'm ready to fuck shit up now.” Honestly, F1 needs to lay off the overly oppressive penalty system and let drivers race. his lock-up that led to contact with Gasly was just aggro racing and is good fun for fans. Who knows how serious KMag is about “fucking shit up,” but we are here for it.

🛑McLaren is waiting to release upgrades: McLaren’s Andrea Stella seems to be hesitant to release the latest round of upgrades that the team has locked and loaded. Why? Perhaps it has something to do with Red Bull ruining their car with every upgrade they release. This fate has been shared to varying degrees by other teams as well. In fact, McLaren seems to be the only team nailing their upgrade packages. This is something McLaren doesn’t want to mess with in such a tight battle, with Red Bull in front and Ferrari not far behind them. Rest assured, the MCL38 will be upgraded before the season ends. Team boss Andrea Stella said, “I don’t want to disclose too much in terms of what and when, but we do have a plan to make the car faster.” He goes on to say, “- the car, as a matter of fact, is still not fast enough to create some boring races – which, if you want, is not in the interest of Formula 1, but is definitely the way in which we want to go racing.” So watch for FIA upgrade releases and how it affects the MCL38 pace.

😡FIA doesn’t want cursing on the radios: This is getting ridiculous. The FIA has requested that Formula 1 management limit broadcasts that include strong language. They have also asked drivers to watch their language on the radio. Here are some of the driver comments after the request came down.

“They can just not play the radios, so it’s quite simple from their side.”

“What are we? Five-year-olds, six-year-olds?”

Frankly, the request is childish. F1 is often deemed “not a real sport" but these drivers are in the one of the most stressful situations a human can experience and limiting language on the radio is the last thing they need to think about. Furthermore, the F1 broadcasts are generally on a 8-10 second delay so the organization can just put more effort into censoring the strong words.

🏎️Ferrari bringing a new front wing to Singapore: As you will read below, the flexible wings are all the rage on the grid. So much so that McLaren is being accused of deploying a flexible front and rear DRS flap that adds a couple of KPH to their top speed. So far the FIA has deemed all cars as compliant with current regulations. So, instead of complaining, the other teams are going to follow suit. Starting with Ferrari apparently. Ferrari moved up the release of a new front wing to the Singapore GP and it is said to be of the flexible style design. Keep an eye out for increased pace in the SF24 this weekend.

🛞 Is This Ricciardo’s Last Race?

“Look, I would say no, but also we know how this sport works. People have not seen through a season before, so it’s nothing new in some ways.”

This was Ricciardo’s response when questioned about whether he will occupy a seat at VCARB for the remainder of the 2024 season, let alone for 2025.

Fresh rumors have cropped up about the available seat at VCARB for 2025, with Tsunoda already confirmed for one. Why have the rumors cropped up so aggressively? That comes down to the driver who is waiting in the wings, Liam Lawson. According to some sources, Liam Lawson has a clause in his contract that allows him to cut ties with Red Bull if a decision isn’t reached about his future for 2025. Furthermore, this clause has a time window attached. A window that seems to be closing at the end of this month.

After a seemingly premature statement from Helmut Marko who said Liam “will definitely be in one of our cars next year,” we expect the New Zealander to be confirmed for VCARB before the USGP in Austin, maybe even sooner.

So that is most likely a door closed on Daniel Ricciardo for 2025 and maybe for Formula 1. However, we still have the remainder of 2024 to deal with, and frankly, there is no clear answer as to why the rumor mill is buzzing with the idea that Ricciardo could be booted before season end.

When asked what has changed since Red Bull confirmed both Ricciardo and Perez to remain in their seats after the August Summer break, Ricciardo responded, “But after the August break selection period, then it was just: ‘OK, contract is this so we’re going to basically make the decision for next season after Singapore.’

So, nothing has changed since the Summer break.

Furthermore, there aren’t clear replacements for Ricciardo for the remaining seven races. VCARB could pull a Williams and throw a young driver in the seat for a few races, but with 2025 filling up, this would seem even more reckless than the Williams Decision.

In our eyes, this rumor is just that, and it seems to come from overly eager gossips keen to stir up drama. Ricciardo is a decent driver in that VCARB, and even though we probably will say goodbye to him this year, it is unlikely to happen before the end of the season.

🏎 Red Bull Skips Fan Liveries

If you didn’t think Red Bull was sliding backward in car development, then we have news for you. Red Bull has decided to scrap their fan-designed car liveries that were planned for Singapore and Austin this year, citing weight concerns.

Earlier this year Red Bull invited fans to submit designs for special liveries that would be applied to the cars for the Silverstone, Singapore, and Austin Grands Prix this year. The idea was the fans would submit and the winners would get to see their artwork displayed on the cars in real life as guests of the Red Bull team. This is an amazing initiative and a great way to get fans more involved but this doesn’t seem to interest Red Bull now that the title fight is too close to call.

During the concept phase of the liveries for Singapore, RB found that the custom art added about 1kg of weight to the car. So they ditched it.

Yes, you read that right. Red Bull is cutting custom liveries to save an extra 1 kilogram of weight. This amount of weight translates to about 0.03 seconds (3 hundredths) per lap. This should tell you two things:

1. The championship is heating up massively

2. Red Bull is VERY worried about the current state of their car

Red Bull hasn’t stated whether or not they will still invite the winners to the races but it would be silly not to.

Fun fact:

The FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis said: “One issue is that cars have a bit too much naked carbon, obviously because of the weight of paint, so the cars have a bit too much black.

So liveries are more important to the FIA then you would think. The raw carbon leads to too much black on the grid so we may see some interesting innovations in paint or vinyl wraps.

💨 Hot Laps

2026 tyres being tested on an Aston Martin mule car. These tyres will be lighter and smaller. This is the first test to establish a baseline set of data.

4th DRS zone added to Singapore between turns 14 and 16 to encourage more passing on the narrow circuit. The teams were consulted with no clear consensus.

Marko criticizes Sainz for an ‘aggressive’ move at Baku. The move was not aggressive in the slightest but Marko is understandably upset about the damage to the car.

Colapinto could go to Audi after a showstopping performance at Baku. Williams is said to have opened talks with the Audi organization about taking the Argentinian for 2025.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Organize: Do you hate creating calendar invites as much as I do? Try this site that turns images and test into calendar events for you.

✅Fly: Here are the most and least satisfying airports to fly out of in North America.

✅Skyscrapers: Have you ever wanted a site that houses all of the world’s skyscrapers and their stats? Me neither, but here it is.

✅Business Banking: If you own a business and you aren’t earning 4.52% on your checking account, then what are you doing with your life?

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