Singapore Grand Prix set for huge change after Ferrari fiasco in Baku

It's all-change in F1 this weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix, with Ferrari hoping that they'll fare better than last time out in Baku.

F1 tyre suppliers Pirelli have revealed the compounds on offer to the teams as they gear up for a weekend of oppressive heat and bright lights around Marina Bay.

This week teams will be able to pick from the C3 (hard), C4 (medium) and C5 (soft) tyres, a step harder than the last race in Baku (where the C6 was the soft tyre) but the same as the 2024 running of the Singapore race.

The softer C6 tyre was ruled out due to evaluations which were done before the summer break, which showed that the ultra-soft tyre could be vulnerable to the high temperatures forecast for the weekend.

Ferrari safe from tyre dilemma

The tyre for qualifying clearly looks to be the soft C5, which should mean that Ferrari avoid a repeat of Baku and Lewis Hamilton's clear frustration that he was sent out on the 'wrong' tyre (softs rather than mediums) for Q2, where he was knocked out.

His team-mate Charles Leclerc ran on medium tyres and progressed to Q3, although he then crashed his Ferrari which rendered him unable to fight for pole position.

Race strategy should be relatively straightforward if the laps are completed without any safety cars or rain, with a one-stop plan splitting a set of mediums and a set of hards clearly the favoured mode of attack last year.

Of course, there are some who believe that Hamilton's tyre frustration was a situation of his own making – with Ralf Schumacher in particular blaming the seven-time world champion for not asserting himself.

“He has to take the blame himself," he said.

"With his experience and his power. I wasn’t a seven-time world champion. I only won a few races. But, if I wanted a certain tyre, I got it. There were no discussions at all.”

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