Singapore 2009

[Brogan]

With just over a week before qualifying, now is a good time to start thinking about this year's Singapore Grand Prix.

There were some complaints about the pitlane entrance and exit of the inaugural race and as a result of driver and team feedback, quite a few changes have been made to the circuit.

These can be seen here: Changes to the Marina Bay Street Circuit

As usual and in keeping with the FIA's cost-cutting and green agenda, the race will be run at night under thousands of high-powered lights.

Circuit details including the latest video are here: Singapore - Marina Bay Street Circuit

The BBC 3 day weather forecast will give us an indication of the expected weather a bit closer to the date.
There was some concern last year that if it rained there could be glare from the lights.
Thankfully it was a dry race but if there is bad weather this year then we will see how the drivers do cope.


Will this prove to be a pivotal race in the championship?
Will Brawn struggle with low temperatures or will Red Bull's engine problems finally scupper any outside chance they have left?

Is Romain Grosjean going to be able to keep it away from the walls?
If he doesn't he may find himself with some difficult questions to answer

 

[teabagyokel]

Is Romain Grosjean going to be able to keep it away from the walls?
If he doesn't he may find himself with some difficult questions to answer

Thats assuming Romain Grosjean actually gets to the grid.

I'm glad they've amended the pitlane if only to stop a repeat of the ridiculous penalty Nick Heidfeld got last year for blocking Rubens Barrichello.

Will this prove to be a pivotal race in the championship?
Will Brawn struggle with low temperatures or will Red Bull's engine problems finally scupper any outside chance they have left?

Red Bull are not going to win the championship, the question is will Barrichello keep up his good form against the man in car #22?

 

[Brogan]

Weather problems may affect the GP?

Apparently a smog haze has "blown in over Singapore due to a mixture of deforestation fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra, and an El Nino weather pattern bringing hotter and drier weather to the region".

Looking at the forecast though it looks like they should be worrying about the rain.
MotoGP cancelled a night race at Qatar this season due to rain so presumably the same would happen with F1?
Surely the glare would from a wet track would make it impossible to race?

 

[teabagyokel]

An El Nino weather pattern? Is that throwing down extremely dodgy raps onto the track?

I'm not sure what would happen but my idea is that the response of the FOM with regards to this is leave it up to the drivers and bugger common sense! If the race must be cancelled/postponed if its wet then surely the concept of night racing is utterly flawed, especially considering:

As usual and in keeping with the FIA's cost-cutting and green agenda, the race will be run at night under thousands of high-powered lights

A chance, maybe for Rosberg, Webber and Trulli to neutralise their half points?

 

[cider_and_toast]

I spent a great deal of time in Singapore a couple of years ago. When the air quality is down it gets terrable out there. It used to make us laugh that the TV would report air quality and over the period of each report it would always seem to be no higher than 1 point below the critical level. It never seemed to get above critical no matter how bad it got. 169 not critical 170 critical.

 

[teabagyokel]

So is the air quality going to be a factor in the race; was it particularly bad at night, for example?

 

[cider_and_toast]

If the air quality is bad it's bad 24/7 as long as the winds blow the smoke over Singapore. I and several of my mates came down with various chest problems. Nothing serious or long lasting thankfully but a pretty good cough all the same.

This time of year the humidity and heat will play as big an effect. I would say it would be like doing a heavy gym session in a sauna for the drivers. Not ideal.

 

[Brogan]

The weather forecast looks bad...

Thunderstorms for the next 9 days at least.

http://www.intellicast.com/local/weather.aspx?location=SNXX0006

 

[Brogan]

Did someone mention Singapore?

Just over 3½ days to go before P1.
Although there's still some doubt about the race going ahead due to the predicted rain.

At least now we know there's going to be a full grid.
Hopefully no-one will crash otherwise there'll be no end of conspiracy theories

 

[teabagyokel]

I think everyone mentioned Singapore, Brogan. 2009? No!

 

[Brogan]

Some data from the FIA preview:

CHANGES TO THE CIRCUIT SINCE 2008

• The pit exit has been realigned to join the track after the first corner.
• The pit entry has been realigned to leave the track before turn 22.
• The track has been resurfaced between turns 5 and 7.
• The outer pit lane has been resurfaced.
• New kerbs have been installed on the entry to turns 1 and 5.
• The apexes of turns 13 and 14 have been tightened slightly.
• The second and third apexes of turn 10 have been moved left and right respectively to make the chicane slower.
• The kerbs on the three apexes of turn 10 have been redesigned in order to reduce the risk of a car being damaged if it crosses them.
• The kerbs on the exit of turn 14 have been moved 10 metres downstream.
• All rubber exit kerbs have additional fixations.
• An extra driver egress point has been added on the left between turns 17 and 18.
• The wall around the outside of turns 22 and 23 has been moved closer to the track.

FIA: Singapore Grand Prix Preview

Nothing about an additional crane being installed

 

[RickD]

An extra driver egress point has been added on the left between turns 17 and 18.

Is that as close as we get to an extra crane?

Have they made it Renault proof though? that is the question..

 

[Brogan]

Romain Grosjean crashes at turn 17 during P1.

Unfortunately Alonso wasn't on the circuit at the time and was therefore unable to take advantage of it

 

[Muddytalker]

So, finally we have action on the track and not off it.

And look who's spun, why it's Romain Grosjean. Tricky corner that, corner 17.

 

[FB]

Stuck at work with no access to a streaming link. How do the new "naked" Renaults look?

 

[RickD]

Looks like the Red Bulls are going to go super light if they make it through to 3rd Q on Sat from Christian Horners comments:

"We've got some engine issues we need to manage with Sebastian (Vettel), which is why he's not been out yet. We've got nothing to lose so we're going to go for it. We'll do our own thing and hopefully that'll put us up the front come Sunday".

 

[Muddytalker]

Not much difference (to FB), they've just replaced the large ING lettering with RENAULT.

Currently Button - Kovy - Barry Cello - Webber - Vettel, 0.2 sec from 1st to 5th
Edit - Button's just slammed a time down about 0.5s quicker

 

[Brogan]

Stuck at work with no access to a streaming link. How do the new "naked" Renaults look?

The colour scheme is still just as hideous

 

[Brogan]

P1 results.

The usual suspects fill the top places.
Fisichella looks like he's still getting to grips with the car.

Pos  Driver       Team                  Time	  Gap	    Laps

 1.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        1:50.179            19

 2.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        1:50.356  + 0.177   22

 3.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      1:50.416  + 0.237   21

 4.  Alonso       Renault               1:50.567  + 0.388   16

 5.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      1:50.614  + 0.435   16

 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      1:50.699  + 0.520   21

 7.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      1:50.715  + 0.536   17

 8.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            1:50.815  + 0.636   15

 9.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               1:50.865  + 0.686   19

10.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       1:51.089  + 0.910   25

11.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       1:51.427  + 1.248   23

12.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  1:51.544  + 1.365   14

13.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:51.643  + 1.464   28

14.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            1:51.656  + 1.477   15

15.  Glock        Toyota                1:52.083  + 1.904   20

16.  Trulli       Toyota                1:52.135  + 1.956   20

17.  Fisichella   Ferrari               1:52.390  + 2.211   24

18.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  1:52.905  + 2.726   23

19.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1:53.232  + 3.053   25

20.  Grosjean     Renault               1:53.458  + 3.279    9

 

[Brogan]

Another red flag, this time in P2.

Mark Webber has put it into the wall; it's going to take some time to fix that.