It’s a burning question for the drivers who will make up the Formula 1 grid this weekend: should you be sipping tea in Singapore?
The Singapore Grand Prix is known for its stifling heat and humidity, which causes drivers to lose a lot of weight as they sweat while driving. Pilots have drink tubes built into their helmets that pump liquids from a bag into the cockpit, but in Singapore these drinks can reach the temperature of hot tea.
“Hydrate well,” points leader Max Verstappen advised Liam Lawson on Thursday, as the AlphaTauri New Zealander prepares to race in Singapore for the first time.
“It’s just quite uncomfortable to drive. You are still very hot and you have to get used to sweating. It can’t really go anywhere. It’s just in your suit, so you have to get used to it. »
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll of Quebec said he was “pretty thirsty” towards the end of the race. “So, yeah, I’m going for tea,” he said.
This is not the case for all pilots. Heading into the seventh race of his career in Singapore, Haas’s Kevin Magnussen believes too much tea equals an upset stomach.
“It gets very hot very quickly. For the first 15 or 20 minutes of the race you can drink cold water, then it’s almost like tea, too hot to drink. So I don’t tend to drink too much,” he said.
“It’s actually hard to swallow liquids when you’re driving and being tossed around in the car. You have to be careful not to drink too much. The stomach can be strained. »
Singapore isn’t always the hottest or wettest F1 circuit — Miami and Bahrain can claim that — but it is a winding layout through the city’s streets.
This means there is less time at high speed when air flows quickly over the drivers and cools them, Mercedes’ George Russell pointed out.
This year, the circuit has a slightly shorter layout which replaces four corners with a straight section. This might make drivers a little more comfortable.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was fastest in Friday’s first practice session, beating teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. by 0.078 seconds and third-placed Verstappen by 0.126.
Verstappen had to swerve to avoid a lizard crossing the track halfway. The yellow flag was raised to tell pilots to watch out for the animal. Another lizard appeared towards the end of the session.
Verstappen is aiming to extend his record run with an 11th consecutive victory on Sunday in Singapore and Red Bull could secure the constructors’ championship this weekend.
Stroll finished the session in 11th, 1.22 seconds behind Leclerc, and three places behind teammate Fernando Alonso.
While the 2023 title race is all but over, the 2008 championship remains controversial.
Felipe Massa lost that year by a point to Lewis Hamilton, partly because the latter scored more points in a Singapore Grand Prix marred by a “race-fixing” scandal involving the team Renault, whose driver Nelson Piquet Jr. later declared that he had intentionally driven into a wall during the race.
His teammate at the time, Fernando Alonso, won the race after the accident brought out the safety car.
Massa believes he is the true 2008 champion.
“I lost my peace because I knew I was being robbed,” Massa recently told the Associated Press. “Since then, I have never been relaxed. »
He is now taking steps towards possible legal action following a published interview in March with former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, who said he learned in 2008 that the accident had been deliberate — Piquet made it public in 2009 — and that the investigation was only carried out after Hamilton was awarded the title.
A spokesperson for Massa said on Wednesday that his legal team had sent notices to key figures and teams involved in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix scandal, asking them to preserve all documents relating to the incident.
