Vettel takes Singapore win while Mercedes flounder

Star of the race

Sebastian Vettel was brilliant, from a fantastic pole position where he lapped half a second quicker than anyone else to a brilliant race performance where he controlled from the front to take his third win of the year for Ferrari and the 42nd of his career.

In the run up to this modern classic under the lights, all the talk in Singapore was of Lewis Hamilton matching Ayrton Senna's career statistics of 41 wins from 161 starts. But Mercedes were nowhere all weekend, not just behind the Ferrari's but behind the Red Bull's too. Hamilton eventually retired to remain on 40 wins, but it was Vettel, nine career starts behind Lewis who actually overtook Senna's 41 wins to line up third in the all time list behind just Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost.

Someone who has the potential to create his own incredible statistics is a young 17 year old driving for Toro Rosso called Max Verstappen. The hype surrounding this kid has been immense all year. It's thoroughly justified although it does obscure the fact that his equally talented but ever so much older team mate Carlos Sainz (a positively ancient 20 years old) is driving just as well in his rookie campaign.

It's Verstappen with the headlines though and on the strength of this performance it is totally deserved. Aggression, on the edge, sublime passing moves, incredible speed mixed up with a bit of selfishness that characterises many of the greats of the past, his first Singapore Grand Prix was brilliant. 

He was hooked up around this tight street circuit immediately. It is one of the toughest races of the year often going up to the race time limit of two hours, 61 laps of constant direction change trapped between unforgiving concrete walls under intense heat and humidity that would sap the energy of any high performance athlete. 

It all came so naturally to Verstappen, he put his car up against the walls, skimming the paint work, always pushing. He qualified just eighth but possibly could have been mixing it with the struggling Mercedes cars. Off the start there was nothing, everyone luckily avoided him and by the time he got going after he was pushed into the pit lane he was a lap down.

A safety car on lap 12 caused by Felipe Massa's Williams and Nico Hulkenberg's Force India colliding as Massa came out of the pit lane enabled him to unlap himself. Hulkenberg got a 3 place grid penalty for Japan although a bit undeserved. From then on it was charging all the way. A second safety car was scrambled after a lunatic man crossed the track and decided to stroll down as cars sped past at nearly a couple of hundred miles an hour. He was later arrested. 

This helped Verstappen more, but it was the way he scythed through the field and how he managed his super soft tyres on his last stint that was so impressive. His move on Romain Grosjean's Lotus was great to watch and enabled him to hunt down Sergio Perez's Force India, but he couldn't pass the Mexican and finished eighth. He was the most lively entertaining driver on the track. Perhaps sometimes he's too on the limit, there are definitely some rough edges that need to be smoothed down but it was a great performance nevertheless.

In ninth came his team mate Carlos Sainz who also suffered trouble when his car lapsed into neutral at the second safety car restart losing him a lot of places. His recovery was just as good in its own way, but by then he was following Verstappen. His team actually asked Verstappen to move out of the way to allow Sainz through to attack Perez, something the Dutchman refused to do. In the end his team boss backed his decision. When all the world is praising your team mate and backing him up when he defies team orders, it can't be easy on Sainz who has been the unluckier driver this year but has often shown equal speed. 

But there's something about Verstappen, it may seem to be adding enormous pressure to the shoulders of someone so young when talking of him not taking long to get to 41 wins as well, but he's shown already this season, he can handle it.

The winner

So up at the front Vettel did lead. His scarlet Ferrari looked beautifully on the limit under the lights, there isn't one person on the grid who has taken on the challenge of this track as well as the four time world champion. Winning three on the bounce from 2011, he even led last seasons race at one point in a year full of strife. It was no surprise to see him in the mix again this time round.

But the dominance was what was so surprising. The fact he led so well and so easily was startling. No one expected Mercedes to be so humbled this year but they were nowhere. It was Vettel's former team mate at Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo who led the charge behind.

I think it could have been a closer race without the safety car periods, both coming at a pit stop time that may have skewed the result slightly. It's by no means certain but Red Bull had some serious race pace and were looking after the tyres better than anyone. As the first stint drew to a close, Ricciardo was closing Vettel down.

The Ferrari driver had streaked off into the distance in the first couple of laps. Actually that's a bit of a Vettel trademark, usually before he backs off and controls the race. This time though, it looked like he may have taken too much out of his tyres, Ricciardo was catching but then came the Massa Hulkenberg incident and the stint was cut short as everyone dived for fresh rubber.

This time Vettel was cannier, taking it easy and backing Ricciardo and his Ferrari team mate Raikkonen up. It even began to make Hamilton, sitting two seconds back in fourth, believe he could have a chance at the victory as he had taken the opposite strategy to the front runners and taken on soft tyres leaving the final stint to the super softs where techically he would have a pace advantage.

In reality Ferrari and Red Bull had too much for the silver cars this weekend. After he'd trundled around for several laps Vettel bolted and opened up a gap as easy as you like. Ricciardo responded but he couldn't keep up. It was good race from the Aussie, but he probably didn't quite have the speed to properly challenge. Kimi couldn't match his team mate but still claimed his second podium of the season with third. Meanwhile Sebastian had this race in his grasp and he wasn't about to let it go.

It would have been interesting to see how the race might have played out without the safety cars but I think Vettel had the Red Bull covered to take a fine win that gives him just a glimmer of hope in the title chase.

The battles

The Singapore circuit has always been a bit difficult to pass on and in truth this race was a bit processional, but there was plenty going on with the safety cars and for some reason there were also a lot of pit stop problems for the teams with wheel guns jamming and several cars appeared to have electrical problems when their cars went into neutral. 

Still there were a number of trains built up in the early stages with Nico Rosberg holding up several cars and Fernando Alonso doing the same a bit further down.

As mentioned the Toro Rosso drivers provided plenty of entertainment as did the Sauber's and the Lotus'. McLaren's Jenson Button hit Pastor Maldonado as they battled after the safety car restart, something which Button firmly pinned on the Venezuelan.

The race was shaping up nicely after the first safety car as Vettel held up the pack. It was a shame Hamilton's car developed a loss of power as it would have been interesting to see what happened as he lay fourth. He dropped down the field quickly and retired for the first time this year. 

In a way it was fortunate for Lewis that his Mercedes team were off the pace this weekend as it meant Nico Rosberg only claimed fourth to get just 12 points back in the championship. Valtteri Bottas plugged away for Williams to take fifth as his team mate Massa retired due to electrical problems. Daniil Kvyat in the second Red Bull had qualified fourth but lost out in a big way during the pit stops to finish a disappointing sixth. Perez held off the hard charging Toro Rosso's while Felipe Nasr picked up the final point for Sauber.

Things of note

So, well, Mercedes have been dominating the entire year, sometimes a second quicker than the opposition then they turn up in Singapore and qualify over 1.5 seconds off Vettel's pole position time. What happened? Well I'm not sure, and neither I think are the team. The drivers reported no problems with the car, it seems they simply didn't have the pace.

There are theories that the controversial tyre pressures that were so talked about at Monza might have played their part. It's also true that this is not a power track so they couldn't use their number one weapon. But their chassis is brilliant too and they were great around Monaco, so they should have been good around here too.

Ferrari have put a whole bunch of new parts on their car, while Red Bull's power deficit wasn't going to hurt them so much here and as Ricciardo has said, they've been improving the car a lot since Hungary. It seems while those teams were having a very good weekend Mercedes were just having a very off weekend. It'll be very interesting to see what occurs next weekend in Japan where if Mercedes are beaten again, then intrigue will increase on just what is going on. For now, this weekend can just be put down to a blip.

In the driver market it looks certain that Romain Grosjean is off to new team Haas for 2016. It has a lot of links with Ferrari and they should be well prepared so maybe it will be a good move for the future. As Lotus look increasingly like they'll be bought by Renault it also means he'll avoid having to drive one of their power units next year!

Jenson Button is making a lot of off the cuff comments about McLaren and his situation there, towing the party line in an interview with Sky before joking that he'll tell the truth once off air. He also made a few funny radio calls to the team that seemed to be saying I don't really care any more. He retired from the race after various struggles but still was in the points before his incident with Maldonado and then eventual gearbox related retirement. I don't think we'll see Jenson in Formula 1 next year and I think it's his choice too.

Alonso also retired his McLaren after running in the points but in the end it was another dismal weekend for the team who are also now facing a budget deficit for 2016. This was one of the richest teams in the sport a few years ago, always at least challenging for wins, it's a despressing sight for all concerned to see just how far they have fallen in such a short space of time. Honda show no signs of improvement, it's going to be a hard road back to the top from here.

Red Bull look set for Ferrari engines, but after challenging Ferrari for the win in Singapore with a poor engine will the Scuderia go the way of Mercedes and think why should we supply them with our power units when they could then beat us with our own equipment. I think common sense will prevail and Red Bull will get their engines. Rumours of an eventual link up with the VW/Audi group continue to grow too.


One final note, American Alexander Rossi made his debut with Marussia this weekend replacing Roberto Merhi. He did a good job, although he qualified last I don't think his lap was representative and he proved it by out racing Will Stevens who has been driving all year. 

The title chase

Hamilton may have retired but he is still 41 points ahead of Rosberg and was ahead of him when his problem struck. Rosberg isn't the problem, however Vettel has got the gap down to 49 points, under two race wins worth of points. 

If somehow Ferrari can carry this form into the next few races then from out of nowhere we have a title fight on our hands. It's a big if though, don't be surprised to see Hamilton back on the top step in Japan next Sunday.

Result

1. Vettel - Ferrari
2. Ricciardo - Red Bull
3. Raikkonen - Ferrari
4. Rosberg - Mercedes
5. Bottas - Williams
6. Kvyat - Red Bull
7. Perez - Force India
8. Verstappen - Toro Rosso
9. Sainz - Toro Rosso
10. Nasr - Sauber
11. Ericsson - Sauber
12. Maldonado - Lotus
13. Grosjean - Lotus
14. Rossi - Marussia
15. Stevens - Marussia
R. Button - McLaren - gearbox
R. Alonso - McLaren - gearbox
R. Hamilton - Mercedes - Power unit
R. Massa - Williams - power unit
R. Hulkenberg - Force India - collision

all photos taken from autosport.com

Hamilton supreme in Singapore to take title lead

Lewis Hamilton took a superbly dominant victory under the lights of the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore which looked closer than it ever really was. He got a perfect start from pole position and took a comfortable lead for the early part of the race.

The tyre degradation all the teams faced amid the humid temperatures meant most went for a three stop strategy which was thrown out of the window when the safety car came out on lap 31 for debris strewn across the track after Sergio Perez’s Force India lost its front wing underneath the car following contact with the Sauber of Adrian Sutil.

Hamilton had only stopped for the second time for his third set of super softs five laps previously and stayed out on track. All his immediate competitors had pitted either just before or during the safety car period for the more durable soft tyres and were now trying to make it to the end without a third stop.

Even if Hamilton could have made the super softs last he would have had to stop again to take on the soft tyres as he hadn’t used them yet. After a race in which the action had been relatively sedate compared to recent Grand Prix, the chase was now on. When the safety car came in at the start of lap 38 of 61 Lewis had to make a gap of 28 seconds to come out still in the lead.

Behind him Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso circled closely together on the slower soft tyre but could, just perhaps, be in front of the Mercedes driver once he pitted. As is so often said on the team radio, it was ‘Hammertime’ and the #44 Merc flawed it while at the same time trying to stretch his super-softs as far as they could go.

Despite several reassurances from his team Lewis kept on doubting he’d be able to make it as far as they wanted him to go, but keep on going he did and at such a pace he was often over three seconds a lap faster than his pursuers. By lap 52 with his tyres near to breaking point he was still going faster than his rivals but no longer by enough. He pitted for the final time and exited behind Vettel but crucially ahead of Ricciardo and Alonso.

In truth even if he had come out behind them he was on such fresher rubber that he’d have cruised ahead with not much trouble but it would have eked out the tension just that little bit more. As it was he was nearing two seconds behind Vettel when he came out of the pits but by turn 6 on the very next lap he shot through a tightening gap in the DRS zone and from there the race was his.

He maximised his opportunity today and was never really troubled at all. Significantly Lewis also for just the second time of the year headed the championship table with a three point gap to his team mate Nico Rosberg. The race could have been so much different if it hadn’t been for a technical problem that robbed Rosberg of the ability to even pull away from the line on the formation lap.

He did manage to get going from the pit lane but despite having had a steering wheel change, could not engage first gear at the start, the gear changes would go up two at a time, his DRS couldn’t be enabled and it hurt his energy recovery systems. He failed to make much progress, stuck behind Marcus Ericsson for some time before pitting. His problem meant he had no pit lane speed limiter so practically crept into his pit box, but could not re-engage first gear and that was that for the day.

After such a close qualifying when he’d failed to get pole by just 0.007 this was expected to be quite the showdown, but if anyone believes in karma then Nico is certainly getting his back on him since Spa. A 29 point lead after Belgium is now a three point deficit. There are still 150 points left to play for including the stupid double points race in Abu Dhabi, but the momentum is with Lewis now and after the race Nico certainly looked crestfallen as he faces the prospect of having to chase down the fastest man in the sport.

Has the tide now swung definitively in Lewis’ favour? That can’t be judged yet but despite the mental strength that Nico has shown this year, he now trails Lewis in points and by four wins to seven. Another defeat in Japan and could it all be game over? Not mathematically, the Mercedes performance advantage is still strong over the rest of the field, this will go to the last but mentally it could be the finishing move. The only thing both have to worry about is reliability and that could still be a crucial deciding factor.

As for Lewis he looked supremely confident after the race, he looked like a man who knew he’d made a statement of intent. Presuming no mechanical issues then it’s going to be very tough for him to get knocked off the points lead for a second time.

Vettel suffered a troubled weekend again but still came away with second. He lost a lot of time in practice, had issues in qualifying that left him over driving the car and throwing away a possible tilt at pole position. He lined up fourth behind Ricciardo but after Rosberg’s issue he had an open gap to attack down to the first corner.

He made sure he was the first Red Bull there and once Alonso gave up his second place after over shooting the first turn from fifth on the grid he managed to maintain a strong second place right through to the second stops.

Alonso undercut Vettel at the second time of asking resulting in Vettel being the first to put on the soft tyres on lap 25 with the aim of a long stint followed by the super softs to potentially attack Hamilton who appeared to still be in range. However, when the safety car came out the Ferrari came back in to put softs on as well, exiting behind Vettel and Ricciardo who was suffering some sort of intermittent problem.

They ran second, third and fourth to the flag with Vettel only moving into the lead for a single lap, amazingly the first time he's been out in front all year. They held their tyres together, but none more impressive than Vettel who made them last for 35 laps. One more lap and he may have been in trouble but luckily the last lap was dropped as the race timed out at two hours thanks to the safety car problem.

Everyone in qualifying looked closer to the Mercedes cars, especially the Ferrari’s and particularly Kimi Raikkonen who looked like he could have had an attack at a top three spot if it hadn’t been for an engine problem in Q3. Kimi has no luck other than bad in 2014 and while he sometimes looked fast during the race, lucked out in the pit stops to end up only eighth.

Alonso kept the good pace up during the race so there were things to be happy about at last but still no match for the Mercedes. Behind this trio, Felipe Massa ran the same strategy but didn’t have the pace in fifth while his Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas was running sixth but just ran out of grip on the last lap when everyone came by. He came home only 11^th. The Force India’s came charging through with Perez having had a nose change coming back to finish seventh, once again ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in ninth.

Kevin Magnussen produced a heroic drive while being cooked in the cockpit of his McLaren. While Jenson Button retired towards the end with a technical problem after a solid opening lap charge, Magnussen suffered burns which he had to have checked out after the race. So hot was it in the cockpit he even claimed his drinks bottle was burning his mouth. A point was the least he deserved.

Esteban Gutierrez retired for Sauber but felt he could have had a point and Marcus Ericsson had his best race of the year as he beat the Marussia’s for the first time. The Lotuses also looked potential point scorers but ran out of grip while Daniil Kvyat had probably his least convincing performance to date as he suffered dehydration due to his drinks bottle packing up on the formation lap. A skinny lad, it showed just how on the edge a lot of drivers are on weight due to the heavier energy recovery technology requiring drivers to have the minimum of fat on them. Thankfully the weight limit of the cars is to rise next year.

The last five laps were the boiling point of the race and Jean-Eric Vergne was the hero as he fought his way into the points. After suffering a five second penalty for exceeding track limits he received another to be added to his race time. He took full advantage of his fresher rubber, one of the few to remain on a three stopper.

With the Bottas train circulating slowly, he cruised up to the back of them before taking in quick succession Hulkenberg, Perez, and then an absolutely beautiful opportunistic move on Kimi into the first turn and then in a rush, he easily got ahead of Bottas. He pushed on so his five second penalty wouldn’t drop him back and pulled out the gap within two laps to secure his best finish of the year and remind people what a racer he can be. It was a result he needed and for once firmly put Kvyat in the shade at Toro Rosso.

So onwards to Japan and the wonderful Suzuka track in two weeks time. The title battle has swung in Lewis’ favour but he and Rosberg know it can swing back just as easily.

The Singapore Grand Prix Forecast

Singapore holds the original night race and the longest race of the year at a time of nearly two hours. As the teams and drivers try to stay on European time its energy sapping track and temperature makes this an event when the drivers know they’ve had to work hard all afternoon, well night.

It’s a long circuit with 23 corners and not much time to take a breather. It has several big stops and in general a lot of them so it means brakes take a pounding. Mercedes have had several issues with brakes this year so watch out for them.

There are two DRS zones, one on the start finish straight and one between turns 5 and 7 which includes the anonymous turn 6. Pirelli are bringing their soft and super soft tyres although the forecast is high temperatures approaching 30C and rain is in the air. Rain is often predicted for this event but never seems to materialise during the race, could this be the year? It would certainly throw up an interesting variable under the lights.

It would also increase the likelihood of a safety car at a track which generally has a high probability of one, a track surrounded by concrete walls is always going to attract incidents, just ask Daniel Ricciardo who offended the walls last year when he drove for Toro Rosso. One more thing to add about this race is the banning of team radio regarding messages that help the drivers drive. All assistance about brake bias, where a rival is quicker (particularly your team mate) what sector or corner you could be doing better at is banned while driving the car. It’s going to be interesting to see how this is policed, if and when the teams get round it and will it affect any of the drivers?

So we’re on to round 14, five to go after this one and the Mercedes battle for the title continues as tensions continue to rise inside the team. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg can often be heard asking for advice from the team. Will the radio ban hurt one of them more than the other?

I read something interesting on autosport.com where their technical writer and former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson said that Rosberg would likely have done his homework whereas Lewis might be a bit lost despite his natural talent being the greater and so able to drive round problems. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

As for the track I think Rosberg could well have the edge this weekend. He’s always been fast around Singapore and potentially should have won the race for Williams several years ago. Hamilton has won before but was slower than Rosberg last year, so it could be advantage Nico? That of course doesn’t take into account the psychological blow Lewis dealt out in Italy?

He controlled that weekend, getting a brilliant pole position and pressuring Rosberg into a mistake as he recovered from a software afflicted start to challenge his team mate for the lead. It was one of his most accomplished performances of the year and Nico looked a little bit rattled by it. But he can recover. There’s a lot of things to hit around the Marina Bay street circuit, not a lot of run off, I’m sure their Mercedes team are going to be on edge throughout, especially when the lights go out.

I think we could be seeing a challenge though which might not have the Silver Arrow squad getting everything their own way. I think Williams will have to concede their main challenger position to Red Bull this race. They always go well here and Sebastian Vettel utterly dominated last year. He’s got a brand new chassis this weekend as the team try to get him the improved race pace that he’s found in qualifying.

It’s an interesting competition between Vettel and Ricciardo. Ricciardo has pretty much got best of the rest position sewn up but Vettel will be desperate to at least get a win. He’s been out-qualifying Ricciardo more often than not in recent races but still getting beaten when it matters. It’s obvious the car is not suiting Vettel at all, but he is making progress and he’ll be determined to finally beat Ricciardo.

With engine power not being a main feature, Red Bull’s deficit suddenly becomes a lot less. Their chassis is at least second best if not the best so will work well around here. I think they can be challengers and possibly get in the way of the Mercedes title battle. If Vettel can’t be the lead Red Bull though, then I’m not sure he’ll ever be, at least for this year.

Williams and Ferrari are locked in battle for third in the constructors. I think they’ll both be fighting for a high of fifth this weekend. After the dismal Italian Grand Prix suffered by Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo resigned as chairman of Ferrari. He is to be replaced by Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s CEO. Ferrari are in a crisis, after their super team of the Schumacher era was broken up he promoted from within and the Italian blame culture arose once more to such an extent that it really has only been Fernando Alonso who has made them look even vaguely respectable.

Even he has been at pains to deliver podiums this year. Team Boss Marco Mattiacci has recognised this and is making changes, but it can’t help them this year and might not be much help for next either which might lose them their most prized asset, Alonso. Anyway, Singapore might be better for Ferrari as power isn’t everything here. With the stop start nature of the track fuel consumption might be an issue, which means Ferrari will be in trouble. If it’s not one thing it’s another for the Scuderia.

Despite Williams not having the best downforce they’ve made a lot of progress over the year and are still bringing updates. Valtteri Bottas is a driver that will get you the maximum result while Felipe Massa should have been a winner here in 2008 and will be buoyed by his Italian podium, so look out for the Williams cars, they could spring a surprise.

McLaren will hope that Kevin Magnussen keeps up his recent good performances, but this time not attract a penalty. It’s a bit tight around here to be squeezing too many drivers off the track. Jenson Button will be looking to beat Magnussen on the road this time rather than relying on a penalty to get ahead.

Force India have looked off the pace recently, bizarrely this has let Sergio Perez rise up to prominence in the team while Nico Hulkenberg, the once superstar of the future has looked strangely off the pace. Hulkenberg needs to rectify this if his start is not to wane.

Daniil Kvyat was brilliant in Italy and I’m sure he’ll hustle the car this weekend to get near the top 10 and maybe sneak a point if his rookie status doesn’t let the walls take a bite out of him. Jean-Eric Vergne needs to start lighting up the time sheets soon if he’s to maintain his Formula 1 career.

Sauber and Lotus, well I can’t see them progressing much here. Even when other teams power advantage may be negated, when you’re missing huge chunks of downforce you’re not going to do much in Singapore. They’ll be hoping for a safety car to mix things up. Caterham have kept on Kamui Kobayashi once again as they battle with the Marussia’s.

So if I were to predict a winner? For the championship, you have to hope it’s a Hamilton win but I’ve got a feeling Rosberg may have the edge this weekend. As an outside bet, go with Vettel. It’s going to be a hot, long race under the lights of Singapore. Who does win could be crucial to this year’s title battle.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Radio silence for helping drivers

"The driver must drive the car alone and unaided." So says Article 20.1 of F1's sporting regulations as the FIA clamp down on radio communication between team and driver that help's with the performance of the car and driver.

Mercedes are a fine example of this, often you can hear them talking to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg telling them where they could be braking later, where the advantage of their team mate is coming from on track. The perception is that the wider public are now viewing these once great gladiators in control of viciously fast machinery as mere puppets under the pit walls control.

In a way I guess that might not be too far from the truth, although not one I fully agree with. The full message sent to the teams on Wednesday night from FIA reported in autosport reads like this: "In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver."

I think the intent of what the FIA are trying to do makes sense. They want the driver to be the star and for the public to see that he is the one in control and not attached to strings from the garage. I'm all in favour of the driver being given more control and can understand a sense of frustration when you hear a communication which helps a driver out and therefore erodes an advantage of another not through that drivers talent but from an engineer sitting by telemetry traces on a computer.

To my mind though it's just another case of Formula 1's current obsession with self improvement where it's not needed. As I've written before there is nothing wrong with the product, what’s wrong is the division of money to teams, about teams struggling for survival when there's no need for that to be the case, the fact that Formula 1 hasn't embraced social media and has no idea how to promote itself even with the major opportunity of a brave new world of regulations this year which no one knows about other than it's not as noisy. 

I'm sure there are some drivers who appreciate the radio help from the team, but equally I'm sure there's some drivers who just wish to be left alone. Perhaps it is a bit unfair when you're a driver who can cope with the complexities of the sport on your own and are able to manage all aspects but then that advantage is cancelled out because you're team mate or main rival has an engineer who is guiding them along.

To me it more emphasises the team element of the sport which unfortunately is so often overlooked. The radio transmissions add to the television coverage, and with this ban I'm sure we'll hear a lot less of the goings on of the drivers and the insight that brings. For instance you're able to learn how some teams operate, or which drivers request more information. How often do you hear Fernando Alonso looking for advice for instance compared to the Mercedes pair? It lets you realise sometimes who are the ones that need help, who want it, who don’t and who will get it anyway.

When does a communication become help anyway? How will that be defined? Thankfully the team will still be able to advise on pit strategy so we shouldn't lose classics like Hamilton's engineer Pete Bonnington saying it's 'hammer time' when it's time to push. Rob Smedley on the radio to Felipe Massa was always fun in the Ferrari days, but was often helping him and that kind of thing might be lost.

Still after all that, it's not going to effect anything radically and I hope in general there's still plenty of chatter broadcast, probably involving a lot of code words from teams that mean what they now cannot say. I do think it is just another case of F1 getting a thought in it's head and running with it for better or worse. We'll lose an aspect of team and driver and how they operate but maybe we'll gain from drivers being thought of as the real stars and in control of their machines again.

However as they’re the ones sitting in the car I always thought they were the ones in control and just utilising everything they could to drive them quicker. I think most people thought that anyway as at the end of the day when you're in a wheel to wheel fight no amount of advice is going to help a driver then and there. The new regulation comes into force at the next race in Singapore.

Vettel continues to dominate in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel completely dominated under the lights in the Singapore Grand Prix. On Saturday he’d taken pole position, not even feeling the need for a second run in Q3 as despite Nico Rosberg getting close, his first time was good enough.

In the race he made a decent start, but Rosberg made an even better one, going inside into turn 1. There could have been a race, oh it came so close to being a race, at least for the first stint. But alas, Rosberg ran wide and Vettel swooped back into the lead and then obliterated the opposition.

He was 1.9 clear at the end of the first lap, four seconds clear after two laps. It was done, dusted, over. Vettel was in a class of his own. Not even a mid-race safety car could spoil his day. As many of his rivals pitted under the full course yellow, Vettel, Rosberg, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton stayed out. Only Vettel could make this work. When the three behind pitted again they went back into the back, their pace insufficient to have pulled a gap.

Vettel monstered the Marina Bay circuit, two seconds a lap quicker than anyone else. It was a monumental performance, no one else could touch him. His engineer told him to get a gap, often they’re telling him to slow down, but when Vettel is let off the leash his speed is explosive. He came in for his final pit stop way ahead of Fernando Alonso who was making his tyres last from the safety car period.

As Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton fought back through the field, Vettel ran serenely at the front, tied up the loose ends, dotted the I’s and crossed the t’s, he was untouchable. It was one of the most impressive performances this year. Shame on those who keep on booing him on the podium too; it would be nice to have closer competition but it’s not his or the teams fault they keep on winning. He’s a good guy, with a strong desire to win, and a performance like today should be celebrated.

Yes, it would have been nice to have a race for victory, but the actual win was a demonstration of someone who maximised everything and was in a class of his own. If there were still any doubts about who will be crowned 2013 world champion, I think they’ve flown away in to the night sky.

Action in the pack

Behind Vettel there was a quite the action filled race going on especially towards the end. In the opening laps it was all about tracking the progress of Kimi Raikkonen, who qualified only 13^th while suffering from a bad back. Despite this he made decent progress at the start and made a number of passes to move himself up the order.

It was when he came up to Jenson Button’s McLaren that progress slowed. But it was during the safety car period that it all kicked off. Daniel Ricciardo had qualified ninth but had dropped through the field at the start. He crashed on lap 25 blocking the track into turn 18. The front four stayed out while the likes of Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Sergio Perez, the Sauber pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez with Paul di Resta sandwiched between them, all stayed out.

When Webber and the Mercedes duo pitted they emerged behind this rabble and began to charge followed by a three stopping Felipe Massa. Webber had jumped Rosberg in the stops but the silver cars were soon on his tail, and they began to charge back up the back.

It looked like Button might have a chance to take McLaren’s first podium of the year, but with ten laps to go his tyres were crying, Kimi in the Lotus, always kind to its tyres made a fantastic move around the outside of Button to claim the final podium. It was a timely move because Webber and co were bearing down on them by up to three seconds a lap. However, once Kimi was ahead of the McLaren, the podium was his as his times improved greatly to keep the Red Bull at bay.

Alonso finished second after a great start that launched him from seventh to third, with the safety car interlude and the differing strategies, second was easily his. But he had no challenge for Vettel and without the safety car he’d have almost certainly been behind the Mercedes cars too. So the thoughts that Ferrari would suffer on a return to high down force tracks proved right. It’s again the genius of Alonso that has been relied upon to give them a respectable result and for the Spaniard after four years of trying, that simply isn't good enough anymore.

Kimi followed behind with a great little drive, while the Mercs of Rosberg and Hamilton followed behind in fourth and fifth, Rosberg probably should have had a podium though, but it’s not working for Mercedes at the moment. Hamilton has not had a good last couple of weekends, Rosberg is beginning to reassert himself, which is actually nice to see that he hasn't been crushed by what was actually a fantastic run of form by Hamilton.

Massa cruised up to sixth while Button and Perez dropped due to their dying tyres to seventh and eighth. It looked like it could have been a great race for McLaren at one point but again they flattered to deceive.

The Sauber’s looked good today, running pretty strongly during the race, with Esteban Gutierrez performing well this weekend particularly in qualifying where he made Q3. Hulkenberg though took the points for ninth, just unable to snatch a few more places from the struggling McLaren’s. Behind Adrian Sutil took the final point as Force India disappointed once again.

A bad day for…

Webber had charged comfortably into podium contention. He was never likely to catch Kimi, but he was certainly giving it a go when with just a few laps remaining his engineers came on the radio to tell him to slow and shift gears early. Heat was rising in the engine; a water leak terminated his progress on the very final lap while still just about in the points.

It got worse for Webber on what had been a drama filled day already. On the slowing down lap Alonso stopped to pick him up. By walking onto the track before all cars had returned to parc ferme he and Alonso for causing a dangerous situation were reprimanded. As it was his third reprimand he will suffer a ten place grid penalty in Korea.

di Resta was showing great form despite Force India once again under performing. With a bad qualifying of just 17^th place, he was charging into points contention when he lost it and ploughed into the barriers with just a few laps remaining. Not the sort of result you want when you’re looking to move up the grid. Especially when Hulkenberg is performing so well right now, it’s also unlikely we’re going to see Force India being able to challenge without a bit of luck for the rest of the year, so this was an opportunity missed.

Perhaps the most disappointed man should be Romain Grosjean in the Lotus. He’d qualified a superb third, but had then dropped back at the start to fifth. Still he was in a good position as the race progressed. Only an air leak from in the engine pneumatic system prevented him from going on to record a podium his Lotus team thought was a certainty.

His reaction on the radio was heart breaking for him. He’s managed to combine his pace with consistency in the last few races but for various reasons the results just haven’t come. Not yet anyway. Still, he’s going in the right direction to show that he can lead this team next year.

The race stewards

The stewards again just messed up this weekend with some of their decisions. The reprimand to Webber and Alonso seemed overly harsh in what was just a nice sporting thing to do, even if Hamilton said he did nearly hit the Ferrari when it had stopped. Webber should not have activated a grid penalty on such an incident.

Particularly bad and a decision that seems unfathomable is when they told Hulkenberg to give a place back to Perez when the McLaren driver had not even owned said place. It was bizarre. The two were fighting up behind the a Williams when Perez dived down the inside of the Sauber running deep into turn seven. Hulkenberg then ran over the kerb to avoid contact. He had not slipped behind the McLaren in this manoeuvre nor had he gained an advantage by running slightly off the track. By doing what he did he avoided an accident thereby saving both their races.

It was a particularly poor decision, it would be nice to have some consistency. An incident earlier in the race when Hamilton had to give a place back to Massa was fine because it was clear cut, Hamilton had cut a corner which resulted in him gaining a place. Therefore it’s obvious to give the place back.

Just because Hulkenberg ran wide off the track and maintained his place isn’t gaining an advantage unless you count avoiding an accident as something to be penalised, strange.

Onwards but the fight is over

It was kind of like reverting to type this race. Vettel won, Alonso ground out a podium, Kimi charged from a poor quali to a podium. Only the Mercedes didn’t quite achieve their pole position. It was a good race, but the hope of a title challenge is over.

This time last year Vettel won in Singapore then recorded a further three race victories in a row. The way Red Bull look right now he could well win the last six races of the season. As impressive as that would be, let’s hope for the odd challenge before the year is out to create some fireworks.

Final Result:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

3. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus

4. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

5. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

6. Felipe Massa - Ferrari

7. Jenson Button - McLaren

8. Sergio Perez - McLaren

9. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

10. Adrian Sutil - Force India

11. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

12. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

13. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

14. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso

15. Mark Webber - Red Bull - Engine

16. Giedo van der Garde - Caterham

17. Max Chilton - Marussia

18. Jules Bianchi - Marussia

19. Charles Pic - Caterham

20. Paul di Resta - Force India - Accident

R. Romain Grosjean - Lotus - Pneumatics

R. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso - Accident

all photo's from autosport.com

The Singapore Forecast

The Singapore Grand Prix is one of the most spectacular looking races of the year; it is the only full night race on the calendar, the track lit up to create a bright strip of tarmac that weaves it’s way around the Marina Bay. It’s a beautiful sight as the cars thrash their way round within millimetres of the walls flashing past the contrasting old and new architecture of the city. It’s a perfect place for these machines, and Singapore is now firmly established as one of the centre pieces of the year.

The weather forecast for the race is rather grim. It’s usually quite warm out there, at the moment temperatures are due to be around 31C but there’s always a threat of rain despite no actual wet race so far in its five year history. Friday and Saturday are due to have some stormy times while Sunday is meant to just be cloudy.

It’ll be interesting to see what the conditions are under the lights if there is some H2O spillage, there’s often been a worry about the glare from the lights on a wet track but we’ve not had the opportunity to see just how bad it might be.

There are two DRS zones which will aid overtaking, while Pirelli have brought with them the medium and super-soft compounds. That’s two stages difference, so I imagine we’ll see quite a big difference in performance between the tyres which will certainly provide some intrigue with the strategy in a race which can last nearly two hours.

Pit lane time is high so they’ll want to minimise the stops, with perhaps getting rid of the super-softs early and depending on the mediums degradation go with a one or two stop. Alternatively drivers outside the top 10 might leave the super-softs till late in the race for a last gasp charge. With the heat and humidity as well, the drivers are certainly going to be working hard on Sunday night.

As is usual with most street circuits the down force levels are set to maximum here. The last two high down force tracks have been won by Mercedes. After rather timid showings at the low down force tracks in Belgium and Italy, I think Mercedes will once again pose a considerable threat for victory. Both drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have gone well at Singapore before, even if overall the results don’t look overly convincing.

If you’re looking for the most likely challengers to the Red Bull steamroller then Mercedes are it. I can certainly see the Mercs getting pole position with either driver, although Lewis does seem to have the edge at the moment.

I’ll be very interested to see how Ferrari do now we go back to higher/medium down force tracks. They performed well in the past two races but was that merely down to them having a decent low down force package? For Fernando Alonso’s sake I hope not. He’s become frustrated with the team despite his public out pouring’s of affection. I think we’ll see a great drive from Alonso, as is often usual, but even more so now that Kimi Raikkonen has been announced as his team mate for next year. He’ll want to show them just how special a talent he is to a team who aren’t so in love with him any more.

Look out for Felipe Massa too. The pressure is off now in terms of his survival at Ferrari and I believe we could well be in for a few highlight performances from him over the next few races. He still wants to race on and what better way than perhaps grabbing a win. He was dominating this race in 2008 before a pit stop incident, he can do that again, he’s still capable.

Since the summer break Lotus have gone off the boil, a little, well a lot like last year when their performance dipped and they seemed to struggle to even make the podium at times. This time Kimi hasn’t even managed a point. Admittedly due to abnormal issues but still… Kimi had great race pace as usual in Italy, and I’m sure Lotus will grind out a few more decent results before the Finn leaves. However with their qualifying still suspect I can’t see Lotus genuinely challenging for a win unless they are on the first two rows. With a wet qualifying in prospect perhaps we’ll see Lotus have a chance to throw a surprise as can be applied to every other team.

Of course let’s not delude ourselves completely that this is going to be a tight tough race between the title contenders. At the moment there aren’t any real challengers at all to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel (with the exception perhaps of a distant red car). Yes, we shouldn’t forget our three time world champion. He’s won in Singapore for the last two years; in fact last year sparked a four race winning streak.

And this year there’s only been a gap of two whole races where he hasn’t won. Actually in general Vettel’s won every other race, and here we were thinking it was a close season when in reality almost under the radar Vettel’s been dominating.

Now he’s won two consecutive races people have come to realise that there might not be a real chance for anyone to come back at him now. Of course Vettel could retire this weekend and Alonso win which would bring the gap down to just over a race win of points. It would then look very much like game on again; but that’s living in an unreality bubble like when you thought Alonso was never going to lose his 48 point lead over Vettel last year… Stranger things have happened, but no, Vettel and most importantly Red Bull, are too good to let this go. He’ll be up there this weekend, he might not win, equally he could win, but overall he’ll be quietly dominating.

I’d still like people to keep a watch out for Esteban Gutierrez; he’s been very quick the last two races, and at some point he’ll put it together at the right time so people will notice. His Sauber team mate Nico Hulkenberg is the main driver in the shop window now. With Kimi going to Ferrari next year, there’s a tasty seat at Lotus which should fit perfectly for Nico. The only thing is, I’m not sure Sauber are capable of delivering again this weekend.

Force India will continue to suffer to the detriment of Paul di Resta. He’s missing from the list of drivers who could potentially move up. It’s not been a good last few races for the Scot.

Toro Rosso are the form midfield team. They really are about the sixth best out there at the moment and 

are definite points contenders at every race. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne are pushing each other, and they’re both equally capable of getting a decent result. I think this could be a good weekend for them both. Toro Rosso should at least be targeting McLaren this weekend.

My final forecast for the race will be that Jules Bianchi will once again beat Max Chilton. I think that’s a fairly safe one.

So I thoroughly expect this race to be a lot closer than the preceding two, especially between the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers. With the prospect of a rain affected weekend and the likelihood of there being more than one safety car period, the Singapore race is set to once again light up the Formula 1 season.

all photo's taken from autosport.com