Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Singapore Grand Prix

Photo from Planet F1

Singapore usually never disappoints.

This one did.

And badly.

This race was an absolute snoozer, which is always hard when it’s also the longest race.

Nevertheless, I powered through.

Here are the winners and losers.

Losers

5. Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen, fresh off his one race suspension, said in a direct quote that he was ready to “F*** S*** up.”

I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.

Unfortunately, what he F’d up was his own race, hitting the wall and failing to finish.

4. Lance Stroll

Stroll has been nowhere near his teammate Fernando Alonso.

I don’t expect him to beat Alonso. Alonso is one of the best ever.

It has to be better than this, though.

3. Ferrari

Ferrari had some pretty high hopes for the weekend, and the race pace was still pretty good!

Unfortunately, a Carlos Sainz crash in Q3 and a Charles Leclerc invalidated lap time had them start 9th and 10th in the race.

They were put on the back foot immediately, and recovered well, but it’s still nowhere close to what they wanted.

2. Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton started 3rd in the race, and Mercedes started him on the soft compound of tire so he’d get a quick jump off the line.

One small problem with that.

Singapore is one of the shortest drives to turn one there is, so even if Lewis got a great start, which he did, he can’t do anything with it before turn one.

So he gained no positions, and then was stuck on a quickly dying tire compound in a car that does not take care of its tires well.

It was just a very, very odd call.

And it ended up having Lewis finish 6th.

1. Sergio Perez

Checo had turned things around.

But this weekend, he qualified 13th and finished 10th, being stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg for a large majority of the race.

And look, I know it’s hard to pass at Singapore.

But a Red Bull should be able to pass a Haas!

It’s back to the old Checo, and it’s not good enough.

Winners

5. Franco Colapinto

Colapinto did really well at Monza and Baku, but those are tracks that greatly suit the Williams.

I wanted to see how he did at Singapore.

Not only did he have great race pace, but he had an audacious move to overtake his teammate in the first sector of the race.

It was a hell of a move.

The kid sure looks like he belongs.

4. Nico Hulkenberg

His qualifying was great, starting 6th in a Haas, and his race was super solid, holding off a Red Bull to keep hold of 2 points for Haas in a crucial constructors fight.

3. Lando Norris

Lando dominated qualifying, and dominated the race.

It was the largest margin of victory all year. Nobody was even in his time zone.

So why is he not number 1?

Well, he almost crashed 3 times despite having insane leads.

He could’ve thrown away a win by pushing so hard, and his engineer had to remind him to just bring the car home.

Credit to Lando for the dominance, but maybe a little less aggression next time.

2. Max Verstappen

It was a weekend where Red Bull looked like they weren’t even going to get close to McLaren.

But that’s what makes Max Verstappen so great.

He put the Red Bull on the front row in qualifying, and managed to stay well ahead of his rivals to finish 2nd and minimize the points loss he had in the championship to Norris.

It’s what makes him the best on the grid.

1. Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo is likely going to be replaced before the U.S. Grand Prix.

In fact, it’s all but confirmed.

Personally, I don’t get it.

Recently, he’s finished better than his teammate Yuki Tsunoda, and even when he hasn’t the results have not been anywhere near as bad as what Perez is doing in the Red Bull.

Still, it looks like it’s a done deal.

And his last act as a Formula 1 driver was giving up his position so that he could take the fastest lap away from Lando Norris and help out his old buddy Max Verstappen.

So if this is it, thank you for the wonderful laughs, exciting race wins, and amazing overtakes over the last 10+ years, Daniel.

See you soon in NASCAR.