History of the Singapore Grand Prix: Crashgate, Thomson Road and more

F1 Features

History of the Singapore Grand Prix: Crashgate, Thomson Road and more

It's one of the most eventful weekends on the calendar!

Gary Gowers

Friday 15 September 2023 13:57

Next up on the Formula 1 calendar is Singapore, where the delights of Marina Bay will challenge the drivers with its twisty turns and 90-degree corners.

Marina Bay is a street circuit where driver skill is tested to the limit with the restricted run-off areas and close proximity to walls. In addition it offers the drivers (and cars) one of the biggest physical challenges of the year due to its extreme heat and high humidity.

The race of today, however, is all a far cry from the original version.

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While the Singapore Grand Prix didn’t form part of the F1 World Championship until 2008, a race bearing the same name took place in a different part of Singapore between 1966 and 1973.

Formula Libre at Thomson Road

The area in question was known as Thomson Road and, in fact, it hosted a race from 1961, albeit it didn’t formally become the country’s Grand Prix until five years later. Back then it formed part of what was known as the Formula Libre series – a formula that permits a ‘wide variety of types, ages and makes of purpose-built racing cars to compete head-to-head’, which is still raced in some parts of the world.

Thomson Road didn’t make it to the mid-1970s though. The track was deemed unfit for top-level racing with seven fatalities in the race's eleven years, with one of the straights acquiring the nickname ‘the Murder Mile’ for rather-too-obvious reasons, while the track also included ‘The Hump’ - a high-speed right-hand bend that caused cars to temporarily leave the track.

But the lure of the Singapore dollar proved too great for Bernie Ecclestone, who in early 2008 agreed a five-year deal with the Singapore Tourist Board for the F1 roadshow to swing into town and race around the streets of Marina Bay.

And there the race has stayed, with the only exceptions being the Covid-affected seasons of 2020 and 2021.

The Streets of Marina Bay

While Marina Bay is, like Thomson Road, a street circuit, it mercifully has a much better safety record, despite its shallow run-off areas and walls. It hasn’t been without incident though and there has been a safety car used in every race, with four of the thirteen races being time-limited rather than ending with the winner having completed the mandatory 61 laps.

The circuit is 3.14 miles (5.063 km) long and, in addition to being awkward and twisty, has the distinction of being one of the few F1 races to take place at night under floodlights.

Due to those twists and turns, the cars use a high downforce set-up but still manage speeds in excess of 193 mph (310 km/h), with the run down to Memorial Corner being the hardest braking point on a circuit that is notoriously very tough on them.

As a result, disc and pad wear is extremely high, with drivers spending around 22 seconds of each lap with their foot pressed down on their brake pedal – a quarter of the lap – in its 15 separate braking points.

Engine power alone won’t win the race at Marina Bay though – only around 44 percent of the lap is spent flat out – but the high temperatures and humidity still make it a high-stress race on the engines, with fuel consumption also a major factor. Don’t be surprised to hear Pete Bonnington suggest to Lewis Hamilton that he will need to 'lift and coast' at some stage.

The Haas of Magnussen Holds Marina Bay Record

If you’re expecting the lap record to be held by a Mercedes, a Red Bull or a Ferrari, you’re in for a surprise because it was the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that flew around Marina Bay in record time (1.41.905) in 2018.

Sebastian Vettel holds the Singapore record for the most wins with five to his name; the first three achieved in a Red Bull (2011, 2012 and 2013) and two more in a Ferrari (2015 and 2019), with Hamilton not far behind with four wins.

Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes are tied in the race to be the circuit’s most successful constructor with four wins apiece, although it would take a brave punter to bet against Red Bull taking the lead on September 17.

Thirteen F1 races have so far taken place at Marina Bay and they have rarely been without incident and controversy for all the reasons stated above.

Crashgate 2008

The inaugural race, in 2008, produced a win for Fernando Alonso’s Renault but it was badly tarnished, along with the sport itself, when it was later revealed that Nelson Piquet Jr. had been instructed by the team to crash in order to trigger the safety car that opened up the win for the Spaniard. In a scandal that became known as Crashgate, Renault didn’t contest a charge of conspiracy - effectively race-fixing.

In 2015, the safety car was deployed for an altogether different reason when on lap 36, Vettel reported on the team radio that there was a spectator on the track. The man in question had squeezed through a gap in the security fence and had strolled, seemingly without a care in the world, down the side of the circuit towards the oncoming cars.

Luckily he disappeared back into the crowd as quickly as had appeared and no-one was injured but it was bizarre in the extreme. For the record, the race was won by the eagle-eyed Vettel.

Seb, Kimi and Max Collide

Vettel was also front and centre of more controversy two years later, when he entered the race as championship leader but on the first corner tangled with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in an incident that ended with all three retiring from the race. Hamilton went on to win the race from fourth on the grid and just six races later was crowned the 2017 world champion.

This year’s race will see a significant layout change, with turns 16-19 temporarily removed to accommodate some major construction work in the city. Instead of a series of bends, that part of the track will now be one long 398 metre straight, which will reduce the number of corners in the race from 23 to 19. In order to accommodate this, the number of race laps will be increased from 61 to 63.

Don’t, however, expect it to make the slightest bit of difference to the RB19.