Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Singapore, 2018

Heat, thunderstorms and air quality all factors in Singapore

2019 Singapore Grand Prix weather

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The weather conditions for this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix are likely to present drivers and teams with a range of different challenges.

As usual, this part of the world is noted for its severe afternoon thunderstorms. These are expected to be particularly vigorous over the coming days and could have a bearing on the on-track action, which largely takes place in the late afternoon and early evening.

The earliest on-track session is first practice, which will begin at 4:30pm local time. This could well be affected by rain. The more significant qualifying (9pm) and race (8:10pm) have a better change of taking place on a dry track, though of course it depends just how much rain falls.

The tight Singapore street course is a particularly challenging venue when its wet, as the 2017 race showed.

The periodic cloudbursts will do little to alleviate the heat, which will be up above 30C all weekend. That may not be good for Mercedes, who struggled in high temperatures at the Red Bull Ring earlier this year.

Finally there is the question of air quality. Hazy conditions, mainly due to the winds carrying dust from forest fires in nearby Indonesia. This has coincided with the race weekend before, but has not previously caused any disruption.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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2 comments on “Heat, thunderstorms and air quality all factors in Singapore”

  1. I’d be curious if teams are taking special precautions for their cars with the air quality – beefier air filters, or older turbos, or something similar.

    Ditto for their personnel – will we see them sporting the masks that are popular in East Asia?

  2. Indonesian fire were apparently set deliberately in most cases.
    https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/19/headlines/thousands_fall_ill_as_indonesian_fires_spread_toxic_haze
    We are reaping what we sow.

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