It's been three years since the last one Singapore Grand Prix. Things have changed since Sebastian Vettel's last victory, so the circus is preparing to return to the path of the tropical city-state lying on the equator. The Asian citizen represents an aberrant case compared to all others circuits on the calendar. Mercedes arrives with the knife in her teeth, counting on a number of factors that could guarantee the team constructor world champion a real chance to play it big.
Mercedes: a growing 2022
the first half of the championship now seems far away in what is the futuristic speed of the circus of Formula 1. The team of the star has shown that, despite a subdued start due to a bad project, she was able to seize all the opportunities that came her way. Brakley technicians spent money and energy until dizziness to revive, albeit with difficulty, a capricious project. The canonical 40 seconds that separated the W13 from the stage winner are now a thing of the past: Mercedes has a very competitive race pace, and the singaporean track seems to go well with the silver arrows.
the pros of the Mercedes-Singapore combo
Brakley's team risks finishing the championship without ever winning a grand prix, something that has never happened in the hybrid era. Hamilton however, risks closing a year without ever winning a race. However, there are reasons to bring optimism back into the three-pointed star box. As mentioned, the W13 has shown that over time it has found a solid race pace, widening the narrow window of use of the tyres that haunted the engineers' sleep.
Singapore is a track of its own. The W13 does not struggle in slow corners and 90 degrees, and of the latter, the layout of Marina Bay, it accounts for about half of the total. In contrast however, some doubts remain in the silver team: the presence of bumps along the way could pose a threat to the W13, which in the past had already identified them as enemies of its stability. Hamilton and Russell are not exempt from duties, as in Singapore, the contribution of the pilot has a considerable weight. The 23 corners and narrow walls mean that the pole position can deviate from what the 'paper' says; a pole start would mean a great chance of victory considering how difficult it is to overtake within the walls of the city-state.
What goes against Mercedes?
After Netherlands e Hungary, therefore, the star has the opportunity to return to play with the big ones, but the optimistic forecasts are opposed the other side of the coin. The two top teams of this year's championship they don't see Singapore as a threat, rather. Max Verstappen , Red Bull they come from a trend of five consecutive hits, strengthened by a technical superiority that is difficult to scratch even from the most atypical of tracks. On the other side is the Ferrari, that despite the obvious difficulties shown from the summer break onwards, he sees Singapore as an opportunity to get back up and better understand the troubles of the F1-75. Let's not forget that the car from Maranello, in a city like Monaco, seemed to feel at home.
Mercedes will have a very tense weekend and they are aware of it. Drivers and teams are waiting for nothing more than to come back and give a concrete annoyance to their top rivals, to restore optimism in a box that needs it in view of 2023. The world champion team however, he is right to see it all from a broader perspective, trying to continue the trend whereby she steals what is given to her. The goal: to undermine Ferrari in the manufacturers ranking, which is now located at only +35, a gap that can still be filled given the difficulties of the little horse. Sunday promises a three-way battle, and the appointment has every appearance of being unmissable.
SOURCES: motorsport.com; Formula one technical analysis
