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[spankyham]

 wrote:">Singapore: Evening dress required

Maranello, 15 September – The Formula 1 World Championship now leaves Europe and sets sail for Asia. Sunday actually sees the seventh running of the Singapore Grand Prix, round 14 of 19 this season. The race has always been run at the Marina Bay street circuit and its biggest claim to fame is that it is always run at night. The race starts at 8pm, with the track completely floodlit. Scuderia Ferrari can boast one win, two podiums and two poles here.

The win. It came in 2010, when Fernando Alonso dominated the Grand Prix, winning from pole, as well as securing a memorable triple, as he also set the race fastest lap. All race long, the Spaniard had to fend off the attentions of Sebastian Vettel, who never managed to get past, as they crossed the line separated by less than three tenths of a second.

A bitter memory. Singapore is also the scene of a bitter memory for the Scuderia. In 2008, Felipe Massa was leading, having started from pole, but at the refueling stop, he drove away before the mechanics had finished the procedure on the F2008. The Brazilian thus dragged the fuel line behind him and only realised at the end of pit lane. The mechanics had to run the length of the pit lane to get Felipe back in the race and so he could finish no higher than 13th in a race won, somewhat surprisingly, by Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Long race. The Grand Prix is 61 laps long, equivalent to almost 309 kilometres and the race usually comes very close to the maximum time allowed of two hours. When it comes to the Ferrari drivers, Fernando Alonso loves this track and has won here twice, while Kimi Raikkonen’s best result is a third place last year.

[spankyham]

 wrote:">Singapore GP – Into the night

Maranello, 16 September – With the European part of this season consigned to history, it’s time for the Formula 1 circus to leave home and tackle the final six Grands Prix of the season, which involves criss-crossing the globe from the Far East to the West and back to its Middle East finale.

The first of those appointments is at the photogenic and floodlit Marina Bay circuit in Singapore and involves a move away from the tracks where power and top speed are the key factors, as Scuderia Ferrari’s Engineering Director Pat Fry explains. “After the two races in Spa and Monza, run on low downforce circuits, we now go to Singapore which is at completely the other end of the spectrum,” says the Englishman. “It’s a street circuit requiring very high downforce, where we will be running the Soft and Supersoft tyres on a track with similar characteristics to Monaco. There are hardly any high speed corners and only two turns that have combined lateral and longitudinal acceleration and therefore the challenge is more about straight line acceleration and good traction.”

The two standout features of the Singapore weekend are the fact that track action takes place at night and, being in the Tropics, it’s very hot. The former element is something that over the years has proved easy to adapt to, while the heat is tough on drivers, team personnel and the cars. “Even though it’s a night race, the temperatures are still very high, in the high 20s or low 30s, which puts heavy demands on the cooling systems for the engine and the ERS,” says Fry. “In addition, the start-stop nature of the layout puts a high loading on the brake systems, with the front brakes in particular taking a real pounding.”

The characteristics of the 5.065 km street track should be better suited to the F14 T than the fast flowing circuits of the past month. However, nothing can be taken for granted at what is one of the hardest events on the calendar and for the Scuderia crew the motivation to do well is clear. “Monza was a tough weekend for us,” admits Fry. “So now we are regrouping and we will keep pushing forward, concentrating on getting the best out of the package we’ve got.” While the team clearly wants to finish the season as high up the order in the Constructors’ classification, there are other reasons for wanting to push hard to the very end of the year. “At this stage of the season, the focus in the factory is shifting more towards next year’s car,” reveals Fry. “However, there is still quite a lot we can learn from track testing, therefore we will be bringing some specific test components for next year and other developments for the F14 T, which will help our understanding for next year.”

[Jabberwocky]

My mate has been out at the track for almost a week and he says he is still melting.

Sent using NCC-1701

[spankyham]

Much better performance by the team. Wish SS and S were the compounds for every race from here on. Real pity for Kimi but it will be interesting to see how the race goes tomorrow.

[spankyham]

[pdfview]http://miascuderia.com/media/2014/14-Singapore/Singapore-Saturday-ENG-Mailing-List.pdf[/pdfview]

[spankyham]

 wrote:">Singapore GP – Pat Fry: “Keep an eye on the variables”

Pat Fry: “This was undoubtedly one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season, with the top six cars all within just over three tenths of one another. On this track, a good set-up and a high level of aerodynamic downforce makes the difference and at every corner you can gain or lose a lot of time. And, as is the case at all street circuits, the abilities of the drivers comes to the fore. I would like to be commenting on a better result, because both Kimi and Fernando didn’t make any mistakes. Kimi was comfortable with the car all weekend and we are sorry that he had a software problem on his final Q3 run, because he could definitely have got a better result. This incident confirms just how important is reliability, especially at this point in the season. Fernando showed what he can do on this track and it’s always a pleasure to see him at work. Like Kimi, he improved in every session, getting the most out of the package he had. In free practice, we saw a significant performance difference between the two Pirelli compounds and I’m sure that will make the race particularly absorbing. At this point of the season, reliability plays a key role and here in Singapore, an appearance from the Safety Car is almost guaranteed. Therefore we will have to keep an eye on all the variables in play and try and bring home as many points as possible for the team.”

[spankyham]

I'm quite excited and nervous about the race. It is probably the first race where we have been truly competitive. So we really have a genuine chance here. I'm nervous because we haven't always been great at the starts, and here the start will be very important.
Hoping for a great start and race from the whole team.
Forza Ferrari!

[spankyham]

Hopefully there was enough rain after q to make the track green again. I think that helps us.

[spankyham]

Lap 30 ..... oh for 2 tenths more speed

Still a great drive by Nando and a great team effort so far.

[spankyham]

I thought the pit wall wasn't supposed to tell the drivers about how they are going compared to other drivers? I thought I just heard Lewis being told "you are still pulling the gap" ???

[LiamCatterson]

Great race methinks

[sagi58]

I'm quite excited and nervous about the race. It is probably the first race where we have been truly competitive...

And, we were... more so than other races!!
Still not enough, though...

[spankyham]

Great to see Dan so happy still, he is going to be a great driver and ambassador for F1. I think he got the biggest cheer of any driver on the podium.

Also, a huge pat on the back to the Ferrari pit team, our pit stops were abso-freaking-lutely awesome.

[sagi58]

Yes... Ricciardo seems to be that rare driver whom everyone likes!!
All the more power to him!!

[spankyham]