Singapore GP: A short but colourful history

Singapore Formula One Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit

This year’s race is just the sixth edition of the Singapore GP, which in its recent incarnation, has always been held at the spectacular Marina Bay Street Circuit. When it was first announced during 2007, that a night race will be run through the streets of Singapore, everybody in the paddock and the fans were super excited.

To be true, 6 years down the line, the enthusiasm among the drivers, teams and fans has not waned. Everybody wants to come here and we see some of the most famous personalities from sports to Hollywood on the grid before the race on Sunday.

There are quite a few factors that make this race one of the most, if not the most, challenging on the calendar. The race being run under the lights, very high percentage of humidity, duration of the race almost touching two hours (longest of the year), barriers very close to the track leaving very little margin for error.

All these force the driver to maintain their concentrate at a very high level for long periods of time, and whoever doesn’t do that suffers- heavily.

Crash-gate

It is sad that the very first edition of this race was marred by controversy, and that too a big one. Throughout 2008, the Renault was not competitive until Singapore. During practice, Fernando Alonso looked really fast and capable of challenging for the top spots on the grid. He was on course to do so on Saturday until luck- or the lack of it- intervened and he ran into car problems in Q2.

Ultimately, he had to start 15th on the grid. During the race, seeing that their lead driver was not making very rapid progress, team managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds devised a devilish plan. They ordered their second driver Nelson Piquet Jnr. to crash just after Alonso had made his pitstop.

This mandated the intervention of the safety car which helped Alonso move right from the back of the pack (after the pit stop) to the front while others made their forays into the pits. Ultimately, Alonso had the pace to open up a significant gap at the front and cruise to victory, his first of 2008.

Everything seemed normal after the race when Alonso duly celebrated a memorable victory with his team. Even veterans like Symonds and Briatore couldn’t have imagined the repercussions of their act. In fact, there was no major furore whatsoever until almost a year later when Piquet Jnr. was dropped by Renault.

Then the Brazilian opened up to the press and disclosed the full story behind the Singapore crash the previous year. Result: Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore were accused of cheating and endangering the life of drivers, marshalls and spectators alike; Symonds was handed a five-year ban and Briatore – who didn’t accept his guilt in the beginning- a lifetime ban from the sport.

Felipe, the fuel-hose is still attached!

The inaugural edition of the Singapore Grand Prix was one of the most dramatic races ever. But in lieu of Alonso’s controversial win, another major and championship-turning incident took place in the Ferrari pits when pole man and comfortable leader, Felipe Massa left the pits after his pit stop, with the fuel hose still attached.

Sadly, that would be the end of the challenge for a podium- he ultimately finished 13th- for the Brazilian who had to stop at the end of the pitlane while the Ferrari mechanics ran to take the hose off the car.

Head-to-tail for the full race distance

In 2010, Fernando Alonso qualified on pole – the last time he was on pole in a dry qualifying session- just 0.067 seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel. The statistics show that Alonso led from pole to flag but the fact that is ignored is Vettel was always in close proximity. The fact that they didn’t make contact, either between them or with the barriers, a single time speaks volumes about the quality of the two of them. Ultimately, the Spaniard won the race just 0.267 seconds ahead of the German.

Hoepfully, we will be able to experience many more events in the future that will help land Singapore a place among the legendary tracks in F1.