The race that will reveal Verstappen's true F1 title hopes - What to watch for at the Singapore GP

The Singapore Grand Prix kicks off the final flyaway stretch of the 2025 Formula 1 season as the title fight intrigue reaches new heights.

Max Verstappen arrives looking to extend his winning streak and maintain momentum to find out if he can really become a contender despite a huge gap to Oscar Piastri.

The McLaren driver will be looking to show his disastrous Azerbaijan GP was just a blip, while teammate Lando Norris is still pushing to close the gap after failing to seize the Baku opportunity with both hands.

With Singapore’s heat, humidity, and unforgiving walls ready to magnify even the smallest mistakes, the night race under the lights could prove pivotal in deciding how the fight for the 2025 crown unfolds.

Here’s a look at the main storylines ahead of the 18th round of the season.

Singapore will be Verstappen’s proving ground

Max Verstappen‘s dominant back-to-back victories at Monza and Baku have reignited his season, but Singapore presents a litmus test of whether he can truly convert this momentum into a genuine title challenge.

Despite the hype and the way he won those races, Verstappen’s hope of retaining the championship remains a very, very long shot and will require McLaren to have several more dismal weekends like the Baku one, which is unlikely to happen.

Still, Verstappen has at least managed to increase the pressure on the McLaren drivers, who will not want the Red Bull driver to get any closer.

The Dutchman was over 100 points behind Piastri just a few races ago, and now he’s ‘only’ 69 behind the Australian.

The low-downforce traits of Monza and Baku perfectly suited Red Bull’s recent upgrades, but the Marina Bay circuit will be a different beast entirely.

Its demand for high downforce, coupled with extreme heat and a bumpy surface, has historically exposed Red Bull’s weaknesses. Lando Norris won the race by over 20 seconds from Verstappen last year, and it’s the only circuit on the current calendar where the four-time champion is yet to win.

That’s why a strong result in Singapore is the critical benchmark Red Bull and Verstappen need to pass to believe a title fight is possible.

To be considered a real threat, Verstappen needs to prove his car’s improvements are universal, and not just track-specific, and beat the McLarens on a track where they are expected to be strong. In that sense, Singapore is the proving ground, and a win there could signal that Red Bull’s resurgence is real.

Still, the mountain Verstappen needs to climb remains very steep. While McLaren is rightly treating him as a threat, the mathematical reality is harsh.

A win in Singapore would bring Verstappen back into the championship narrative, but anything less will suggest that his revival is track-specific, making a true title charge a bridge too far.

The ultimate trial of Piastri’s mental strength

While Verstappen will seek to find out whether he’s a true championship contender, the Singapore Grand Prix will be no less significant for Oscar Piastri.

Coming off a disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix where a jumped start and crash compounded a weekend he himself described as full of far too many mistakes and “silly errors,” his response in Singapore will be critical.

The Australian will face one of his most important tests of character in a race that might reveal much about his credentials as a bona fide world champion.

Bouncing back from what was the worst weekend of his year would send a message to his rivals that his cool and calm demeanour is unshakeable as he plots his course to the title.

Fortunately for the Australian, Marina Bay plays to McLaren’s strengths, offering him a perfect platform for redemption. The circuit’s demand for strong traction out of slow corners and precision under braking aligns well with the 2025 McLaren package.

Verstappen is still far away, and while Norris failed to take advantage of Piastri’s retirement in Baku, the championship pressure is mounting.

A clean performance where Piastri challenges for victory would reassert his authority and frame the Baku blip as a mere anomaly.

Singapore’s weather challenge

Few races on the calendar test drivers physically as much as the Singapore Grand Prix. While the Marina Bay track alone is a relentless layout, it is the sweltering climate that makes this race one of the most punishing of the year.

Temperatures remain in the high 20C range even at night, and combined with humidity levels that often exceed 75%, the conditions inside the cockpit become almost unbearable. With engine heat radiating into the cockpit, the air temperature surrounding the drivers can climb well beyond 40C.

Over the course of a race that often runs close to the two-hour limit, their core body temperature can rise several degrees, pushing towards 39-40C — levels that would send most athletes into heat stress.

Fluid loss is extreme, with drivers typically shedding 2–3kg of body weight through sweat alone during the race. In some cases, losses can approach 4kg, or almost  5% of a driver’s total body mass.

This level of dehydration reduces blood volume, increases heart rate, and impairs muscle efficiency, all while drivers are still expected to wrestle with a car generating forces of up to 5G through the corners.

Last year, Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton had to skip media duties post-race after suffering from “overheating” following the gruelling 62 laps.

The forecast of frequent showers this weekend means drivers may also have to contend with the added unpredictability of rain on an already treacherous track.

Will Ferrari chase frontrunners or fight the midfield? 

While McLaren, and in theory Red Bull, remain the yardsticks at the front of the field, the battle to emerge as best of the rest in Singapore looks wide open once more.

Ferrari and Mercedes appear the most likely contenders, though both arrive with questions still hanging over their form given their inconsistency this year, particularly from the Scuderia.

Mercedes has been edging closer to competitiveness, as evidenced by the double points finish in Azerbaijan, but Singapore hasn’t been too kind to the German squad recently.

Ferrari, meanwhile, has endured a bruising stretch, missing the podium entirely at Monza and finishing miles off the leaders in Baku.

The Marina Bay layout may not immediately play to its strengths. The SF-25 has shown flashes of speed in low-speed corners, but tyre management and race-day execution have too often undermined the team’s potential.

If Baku was anything to go by, Ferrari should be watching its back more than looking ahead, particularly if Red Bull’s turnaround is real.

Williams and Racing Bulls appeared to have Ferrari’s measure in Azerbaijan, and while the runner-up spot may not matter much for the Maranello squad, it will want to at least show that it can maximise its package without operational or strategic mistakes.

With so much variability in form, the chase behind McLaren and Red Bull will be one of the most intriguing subplots of the Singapore weekend.

Where has Hülkenberg’s form gone? 

Since the high of his maiden Formula 1 podium at Silverstone, Nico Hülkenberg‘s season appears to have taken a significant downturn.

The veteran German now finds himself in an unfortunate statistical bracket: Over the previous five races, from Belgium to Azerbaijan, he has failed to add a single point to his tally, meaning he and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto are the only two drivers on the grid who have not scored during this period.

A combination of factors has contributed to the slump, including a loss of qualifying edge to team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, who has outqualified him in their last eight head-to-heads.

The Brazilian has also scored in three of the last five races in which his team-mate has finished outside the top 10.

While Bortoleto appears to have found his stride, Hülkenberg’s point-less run has been a significant factor in Sauber dropping from sixth after Silverstone to eighth after Baku.

The team insists there is no fundamental issue behind Hülkenberg being unable to match Bortoleto in qualifying, and there have certainly been external factors behind the German’s poor run, including not being able to start at Monza, where he had qualified just outside the top 10.

Yet with the clock ticking on the Sauber team before its Audi transformation, the longer Hülkenberg’s slump persists, the more it risks reshaping what had looked like a promising season ahead of the 2026 switch.