10 Unusual Facts You Might Not Know About The Singapore GP

1. Light ‘em up

The Singapore GP is, famously, a night race. So obviously the track needs to be lit up. 1600 custom-made floodlights are installed for each race weekend, connected by 108,423 metres of cables and with total power requirements of 3,180,000 watts. In other words, enough to power 20 Formula E cars for five and a half races…

2. A strange Singapore Sling

Named after the famous Singapore Sling drink, Turn 10 at the street circuit used to be one of the weirdest corners in F1 and became notorious for strange incidents – cars would get launched over the kerbs and sometimes hit the wall. It was a tight left-right-left, triple-apex chicane that didn’t make much sense and was scrapped for the 2013 season.

3. One of F1’s toughest challenges

The Marina Bay Street Circuit and Singapore GP present a whole host of exceptional challenges. The track is pretty bumpy (which means lots of sparks) and the fact the paddock remain on European time is another tough task to get to grips with.

But equally challenging is the Singapore heat and humidity, with temperatures of well over 30 degrees and humidity levels above 70 per cent. Drivers can lose around 3 to 4kg of weight during the race through fluid loss from sweating. And people say driving an F1 car is easy…

4. Nightmare situation

With such challenging conditions, it’s no surprise a driver’s drinks bottle is crucial for the Singapore GP. But, occasionally they fail. This happened to Sebastian Vettel last year. He raced to victory but said the drinks bottle failure was the only issue and he was “quite thirsty” afterwards. Not what you want in those conditions. It makes his win even more impressive.

As we’ve already established, the Singapore GP is a pretty special event and takes place at a unique venue. One of the many elements is the Turn 18/19 section, which actually passes underneath a big waterfront grandstand. There’s nothing like that on the F1 calendar.

6. Soaking in the sights

There are few race tracks that take in so many landmarks and tourist attractions. The Marina Bay start/finish straight is situated just by the Singapore Flyer, while the cars fly past City Hall, Supreme Court and Parliament, Merlion Park, Esplanade Drive and over the Andersen Bridge.

7. Sleep well

F1 drivers have to stay on European time due to the night race schedule. This means getting out of bed at lunch time and going to bed in the early hours of the morning. Black out curtains are helpful with keeping the sleeping pattern up but Romain Grosjean has admitted there are situations where they have to get the black bin bags and tape out to block out the light.

8. Quite a show

As well as some explosive on-track action, the Singapore GP also puts on a pretty special fireworks display after the chequered flag. Sometimes the fireworks show on Sunday night can last for up to three minutes and is a pretty cool way to end a GP weekend (which has hopefully been as exciting as the fireworks).

9. Birds eye view

The Singapore Flyer is a 165m tall Ferris Wheel, which was once the tallest in the world and provides a pretty unrivalled view of the race track. In fact, certain Singapore GP ticketholders can get unlimited free rides.

The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix hit a huge F1 milestone, as it was the 800th race since the series’ inception in 1950. It all looked pretty smooth at the time, with Fernando Alonso taking a surprising victory.

But, of course, it later emerged his Renault team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had been told to crash on purpose to aid Alonso’s charge. It remains one of F1’s biggest ever controversies, tainting what was an important race for F1.