Williams should not have described their tactics in last weekend’s race as the “Singapore plan”, said team principal James Vowles, as it risked being “misconstrued.”
The team told its drivers Carlos Sainz Jnr and Alexander Albon to maintain a close formation in the second half of Sunday’s race to reduce their chance of being passed by Isack Hadjar, who gained on them at the end of the race.After Hadjar made his pit stop and came out behind the two Williams cars, race engineer James Urwin told Albon: “This is potential Singapore plan.”
The team’s plan was to keep Albon within one second of Sainz so he could repeatedly use his Drag Reduction System in the three zones around the Jeddah circuit and so thwart Hadjar’s efforts to attack them. Sainz did the same with his rival Lando Norris when he won the Singapore Grand Prix in 2023
Renault won the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 by instructing one of their drivers, Nelson Piquet Jnr, to crash and trigger a Safety Car period after his team mate, Fernando Alonso, had made his pit stop. The infamous plan, which became known as ‘Crashgate’ was uncovered the following year and is now at the heart of a legal case which could change the outcome of that year’s world championship.
Vowles made it clear the team had taken its inspiration from Sainz’s tactics in the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
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“This morning we went into a discussion that here a ‘DRS train’ is actually one of the few places that can protect you. There is only one overtaking place and if you form that DRS train you should be fairly secure. So we already formed that this morning as a plan of action.”
The Williams drivers secured eighth and ninth places ahead of Hadjar using the strategy. Vowles said the plan was “executed just brilliantly by our drivers, Carlos just gently backing up into Alex and holding that gap at about 0.9, and that was it.”
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BasCB (@bascb)
22nd April 2025, 13:00
Oh, jeez. Right, I guess I can be glad I didn’t even think about THAT singapore “strategy” by a team when he mentioned Singapore plan” on the radio.
Looking back, I can see how you would want to avoid any reference to that one. But I do agree that it worked amazingly now and superbly when it won Sainz the race in the Ferrari to do this DRS tow.
S Arkazam
22nd April 2025, 13:54
Not for a second I thought about Crashgate, and only halfway through this article I got the link.
We should be careful not to avoid too many words and references; in the USofA they even ‘woked out’ the word ‘woke’. ;)
BasCB (@bascb)
23rd April 2025, 7:28
Good point there Akrazam, we should not just avoid all things we might dislike in our conversation – I only realized what he was referring to in the last part of the article too, where there is a picture and reference to Crashgate, btw.
Kringle
22nd April 2025, 13:15
Dont mention ze war!
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd April 2025, 13:35
I somehow failed to even realize the whole Singapore reference at the time.
Simon
22nd April 2025, 15:45
Sheesh…
Jere (@jerejj)
22nd April 2025, 15:52
No one’s perfect.
Dex
22nd April 2025, 13:44
God, when will these times, when it’s more dangerous to say something “wrong” than kill a man, end? So much fear, so much self-censorship. I’d never make that connection, no one sane would.
After all, the man behind all that is back in F1, and all is forgiven, apparently. That makes this even sadder.
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
22nd April 2025, 14:41
+1 to that. What a disgrace seeing him back in the paddock. Anyone with such a cavalier attitude to his drivers’ lives (not forgetting, you know, cheating) shouldn’t be anywhere near a racing series.
El Pollo Loco
22nd April 2025, 21:58
It’s embarrassing. Talk about scaring yourself quiet.
Zach (@zakspeedf1team)
23rd April 2025, 8:52
It’s funny, I wonder how many of the the people who complain about “not being able to say anything anymore” also tell drivers to “shut up and drive” or “politics have no place in sports” when they dare to express an opinion, I bet it’s not zero ;)
T
23rd April 2025, 14:22
the overreaction to this is more hilarious than the root event itself
an engineer said something on live radio that could easily and possibly be misconstrued as a reference to one of the biggest scandals in the sport’s history – a scandal that has been resurrected thanks to Massa’s lawsuit
the team principle preemptively disavowed – pun intended – that reference and explained their intent.
that’s it, that’s the whole kerfuffle
if you read the comments before the article you’d think something far more egregious happened.
Also Flavio wasn’t “forgiven”, he sued his way back in.
J765
23rd April 2025, 17:20
The man behind all that has been racing for Aston Martin for quite a few years, now.
El Pollo Loco
24th April 2025, 1:22
Your hatred for Alonso knows no bounds. It also shows you know nothing about the event itself. The idea was Nelson Piquet Jr.’s (by his own admission and according to Pat Symonds). Renault had said they would pull out of F1 if they failed to score a win that season and Piquet knew he’d never get another F1 seat if that happened. Briatore and Symonds agreed to the idea and drew up plans. All three of them said Alonso was unaware. Not sure why Piquet or Symonds would lie on Alonso’s behalf.
Chris Horton
22nd April 2025, 13:45
Erm, I definitely thought he meant intentionally giving the car behind DRS.
Another crash gate being openly announced over the radio would be an interesting decision.
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:32
ha, yeah, that shows what a complete non issue this actually is.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
22nd April 2025, 14:09
I now want Ferrari to stop saying “Plan B” or “Plan F”
Let’s hear …
“Lewis, switch to Plan-Napalm”
“Charles, what do think of trying Plan-RatCrap”
“OK boys, let’s try Plan-Dead Donkey”
elchinero (@elchinero)
23rd April 2025, 21:32
or “Hammer-time”
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:35
“Plan F” would effectively become plan , causing them utter confusion. Oh wait..
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:36
plan .beep.
Stupid interface took away the clue between sharp brackets.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th April 2025, 13:57
Ahah, that would be fun to hear on the radio!
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
22nd April 2025, 16:18
tbh like the others i only thought of Sainz’s Singapore sling which is probably the best innovation in F1 since the F duct
SteveP
22nd April 2025, 17:42
Are you allowed to say that under the MBS speech restrictions?* – I mean we know it’s a duct, there’s no need to emphasise it :)
* Am I allowed to call them speech restrictions?
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
22nd April 2025, 18:42
haha i hadn’t considered that. Maybe its the F-duct tape under MBS
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
22nd April 2025, 16:57
I thought it was a reference to the fall of Singapore because the Racing Bulls have Japanese engines.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
22nd April 2025, 19:01
Couple of years too late – the “whoops, that crash came at a convenient time for us” plan would have worked better with Sargent or Latifi in the car.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
23rd April 2025, 6:01
What a non story. Is this really relevant enought to have a full article?
hje
23rd April 2025, 8:02
Nobody thought of THAT Singapore plan, because it was the other spainard this time – not the cheater one.
El Pollo Loco
24th April 2025, 11:57
Are you sure you and J765 aren’t the same person. You both seem to live for insulting FA. And just like him you seem completely clueless about what even happened in Singapore if you’re calling him a cheater based on Singapore.
It’s also funny that, for being such a “cheater,” his list of controversial crashes is basically non-existent. Meanwhile, drivers like Max, Lewis and Seb let alone drivers like Senna and MSC all have an extensive list of famous coming togethers. Can you name a famous crash Alonso’s had off the top of your head? I doubt it.
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:24
Well, there is a certain -quite costly- McLaren/Ferrari + ‘Alonso just happening to be around at the time’ coincidence with some copied design plans as well…
Great driver though.
El Pollo Loco
25th April 2025, 10:30
lol, you’re seriously implying he had a role in Nigel Stepney’s disgruntled actions to get revenge on Ferrari for being passed over for promotion?
Does anyone call Lewis a “cheater” because he got caught lying to the stewards 20 years ago. It would be equally ridiculous, but it’s the type of crap Hamilton cultists pull on Alonso.
Damons Arrows
23rd April 2025, 8:55
I think DRS should not be disabled when following a team mate to prevent such gamesmanship tactics that prevent racing. Not a huge fan of them getting it from lapped cars either
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
23rd April 2025, 13:53
another rule eh
El Pollo Loco
24th April 2025, 11:49
There’s no such thing as too many rules! Maybe we should outlaw teammates giving each other drafts or splitting strategies. It’s just so unfair! And, as we’ve seen, more rules and rewriting rules has been incredibly effective.
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:29
Exactly! We haven’t had any controversies anymore since the they came up with new rules back in what, 1950?
btw,
I think you forgot the ” ;-) “, just to make sure you don’t need to follow up with a TD.
El Pollo Loco
25th April 2025, 10:31
lol. I intentionally don’t because it’s quite revealing when people can’t detect sarcasm.