Wonderduck's Pond

September 17, 2018

F1 Update: Singapore 2018

It was night, it was hot and humid, and it even rained a little bit. But how did the race turn out? THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2018 Grand Prix of Singapore!

*OH GOD MAKE IT STOP: Look, we'll be honest here. We here at F1U!, we're Formula 1 fans. We love watching the races, it's a good way to spend two hours when all around is work. We look forward to these things.

But good lord, did this race suck. How badly? The first six positions on the grid were Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo. When the race ended roughly two hours after the lights went out, the finishing order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel, Bottas, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo. Yes that's right, they finished in the same order they started. The only time these six were NOT in that order on track was during the pit rotation.

Indeed, if it wasn't for backmarker traffic, there wouldn't have been ANY excitement up at the front after the first few laps. Late in the race, Verstappen was trailing Hamilton when the leader got caught up in some squabbling backmarkers that didn't immediately react to the blue flags. This balked the Mercedes driver, allowing Verstappen to close right up behind and even give a vague little thought towards trying a pass for the lead. But then the leaders got by, and the moment was over.

*WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN US?: This was all down to the track itself. Much like Monaco, there are very, very few places to attempt a pass at Singapore. It's very unlikely it'll ever get better, since as a street circuit, there's a limit to how much they can modify the track. As a spectacle, Singapore is top of the page. The cars look amazing under the nearly 2000 light projectors used to illuminate the circuit, the surrounding cityscape is awesome at night, and the Singapore Flyer is a remarkable landmark for the cameras to linger over. But damn-all if the racing is mostly subpar. We here at F1U! would still rather watch a race here than Hungary, but our mind is beginning to change on that.

*SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?: Hamilton's win, mixed with Vettel's third, means that with six races remaining the Ferrari driver could win every race, and if the Brit finishes second, he'd still win by a point or two. The championship isn't over... a few reliability problems or random Red Bull-induced crashes could change things overnight... but Vettel is running out of time very very quickly. We here at F1U! haven't looked recently, because we do not partake in gambling, but we'd be surprised if the British oddsmakers haven't taken the championship off the board yet.

The next race is at Sochi, Russia. We tremble with fear at another miserable race at that less-than-exciting circuit. See you then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 484 words, total size 3 kb.

1 I just got back from the Reno Air Races, and there's not a lot of passes in air racing either, but when there are, they're quite exciting, but often hard to see. (One can pass in the straightway, but unless one is cleared to cut back in, you still have to take the turn high and outside the plane being overtaken, which can often put you back where you started.).
I was watching one exciting rookie in the sport class claw his way up from the bronze to the silver, and get into the gold race, only to have some kind of mechanical failure put him out right at the start of the Gold Finals. I thought he could have made it if that hadn't happened.

Posted by: Mauser at September 18, 2018 07:53 PM (Ix1l6)

2 Well, Vettel did pass Verstappen on lap 1, so there were about 15-20 laps when they were switched before the pit stops started, and there was one extremely brief moment of excitement when Verstappen managed to get out of the pits mere millimeters ahead of Vettel to get the place back. But other than that, *SNORE* I was actually on a plane during the majority of the race and did not bother watching the recording when I got home.

I did like that one moment in the post-race press conference, though.
Reporter: *long, rambling question about Vettel passing Verstappen on track and Verstappen getting the spot back out of the pits*
Max: Well, I was a little disappointed on the first one, and on the second one, I think Seb was a little disappointed.
Seb: That's a good summary.

Posted by: Mrs. Will (Kathryn) at September 20, 2018 07:42 AM (JS6Mx)

Hide Comments | Add Comment