But I’d argue Singapore is still special, and that it was missed during those two Covid-affected season when inevitably it was dropped from the schedule. Yes, it lives up to the street circuit stereotype on overtaking – although the much-discussed change of layout this year, with the loss of that large bus-stop section around and under the big grandstand, might help. But it’s always been a proper and welcome test of endurance (in a modern context), especially in that stultifying heat. And the place still has that exotic sheen.
It’s also the sort of race track that can throw up the unexpected – and plenty of trouble. Max Verstappen has yet to win here, for example. Might this be where the consecutive run record Toto Wolff has dismissed as Wikipedia fodder will finally end? Just posing that question feels like clutching at straws… But history over the past 15 years does offer a warning of the particular jeopardy that exists in Singapore. To get us in the mood for what hopefully will be an eventful weekend – please, please, fingers crossed… – let’s remind ourselves of some of the grand prix’s defining moments.
The first corner pile-up (2017)
Räikkönen skews into Vettel to dramatic effect
Peter J Fox/Getty Images
The top three wiped out, which just happened to be both Ferraris, and Fernando Alonso almost tipped over in the melee too… yes, the first corner in 2017 created sparks and surely the most visually sensational moment in Singapore GP history. Sebastian Vettel made a sluggish getaway from pole, Max Verstappen beside him a better one, but Kimi Räikkönen from the second row by far the best of the lot. Then as he charged up the inside of the Red Bull, Räikkönen’s right-rear just tagged Verstappen’s left-front, pinging the Ferrari into Vettel’s which was already squeezing left. Räikkönen and Verstappen made further contact at Turn 1, with Alonso’s McLaren in the wrong place at the wrong time. And through it all, from fifth on the grid, came… Lewis Hamilton. He didn’t really need gifts back in Mercedes’ dominant heyday, but he accepted this one surely in amazement.
Hamilton’s big qualifying lap (2018)
Hamilton scorches to pole in 2018
Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images
Mesmerising. Of Lewis Hamilton’s 104 poles (and counting), his big lap in Singapore 2018 is among the pick of a verdant crop. Watch the onboard. Time and again, surely he’s braking too late. But not a wheel is locked, not an apex missed, the master absolutely in sync with his car delivering perfection. It’s only a surprise Hamilton was just three-tenths clear of Verstappen – but a more telling 0.6sec ahead of Vettel, and another tenth beyond his poor old team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The lap is among the best from anyone, ever, in anything.
Hamilton’s McLaren calamity (2012)
Hamilton walks away…
Getty Images
A clap of the hands, a shake of the head. It’s trite to suggest this low point is why Lewis Hamilton left McLaren, but his retirement from the lead in Singapore 2012 when his gearbox lost the plot into Turn 1 spoke volumes for why he did. And all on the weekend when Niki Lauda paid that infamous visit to his hotel room to leave the Mercedes bait. Had Hamilton won that race, as well he should have, it’s tempting to say modern F1 history and his own record-breaking career might have carried a different hue. He probably would have gone anyway. But still, how he walks away from his lame car, hands behind his back, you can’t help wondering: was this the moment he knew?
The spectator who went walk-about (2015)
“There’s a fan on the track. There’s a fan on the track.” Sebastian Vettel sounded like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing as he radioed back when a man decided to go for an evening stroll in 2015.
