Singapore GP data: Two clear winners from Friday running as shock team emerges

Friday’s Free Practice at Singapore’s Marina Bay Circuit has left two clear winners ahead of qualifying and the race. McLaren and Ferrari are the two teams to beat this weekend while Red Bull struggled as expected and a surprise team emerges in the midfield.

Friday’s running at the Singapore GP was uneventful for the teams. FP2 was the session that left the most representative data to analyse as the temperatures and track conditions will be the most similar to what the drivers will face in qualifying and the race.

Singapore GP data: McLaren or Ferrari, Ferrari or McLaren? That is the question.

Lando Norris finished P1 in Friday’s FP2 session. The McLaren driver broke the ‘red’ domination at this circuit last season. Ferrari had dominated every session since 2023, including FP1 earlier on Friday. Still, the gap between Norris and Charles Leclerc in FP2 was minimal.

As we can see, up to the middle of Sector 2 the delta – approximate calculation of the difference between the two cars on the same lap – between the two cars is practically nil. However, we can appreciate a slightly better corner entry of the MCL38 over the SF-24, which seems to be a more stable car in general terms on street circuits.

Leclerc was +0.058s slower than Norris. However, the McLaren driver had a small correction on the exit of the tricky Turn 17 which cost him some time. The delta could have been slightly higher.

Red Bull gets lost and Mercedes plays the clueless game

It’s going to be a particularly tricky weekend for Red Bull and Mercedes as the early data and timesheets show. The Milton Keynes team is off the pace and will struggle to even get into Q3 as they did last year.

Mercedes on the other hand also looks very lost. Although their problems should not be as serious as they have been on Friday.

The Brackley team should, as in Baku, be in a position to be third and fight for solid points at Marina Bay. Their Sector 1 and Sector 2 data is promising.

All you need to know ahead of the Singapore GP this weekend

👉 F1 schedule: When is the next F1 race and where is it being held?

👉 F1 2024 power rankings: What is each driver’s average PlanetF1.com driver rating this season?

VCARB emerges as the big surprise for this weekend

After several races out of the spotlight with a midfield led alternately by Williams, Haas and Aston Martin, VCARB is set to be the big surprise of the weekend.

Although it is true that it is always rumoured in the paddock that they are the team that uses less fuel in their long runs on Friday and that they always run with a more aggressive engine map than the rest, the data of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo are particularly good.

With some margin over their rivals, they were the third best team on the grid this Friday.

Was it just a one-day thing or will they be able to maintain this momentum in qualifying and the race? With Daniel Ricciardo’s future hanging in the balance, perhaps this is the Australian’s best chance to make a statement if a decision has not yet been made that will affect his continuity in Formula 1 beyond Singapore.

The infamous wall at the exit of Turn 17: key for qualifying

Throughout the day, we have seen many drivers brushing and even slightly impacting the wall on the exit of the tricky turn 17. The best examples of this were Oscar Piastri and Franco Colapinto pushing their cars to the limit.

Tomorrow, with everyone pushing hard for the last thousandth of a second to make the difference, any touch with the wall could be lethal. But not only for the one who touches the wall, but also for those drivers who are in a flying lap and have to lift the throttle because of a yellow flag or a red flag.

Teams cannot sleep and will have to set a competitive lap from the first attempt in Q1. After what happened to Lando Norris in Azerbaijan, the teams should take note of this circumstance which has been repeated several times today in order to take precautions for qualifying.

Long runs: tyre variety and many laps in traffic

The long runs of FP2 were marked by many irregularities. The drivers encountered traffic and that didn’t allow them to do extensive running with very representative data. Filtering the laps, the following data was obtained:

McLaren is the only team in the ‘Big 4’ to have tested two different tyres with its drivers. Lando Norris used the soft tyre for his long run and Oscar Piastri the medium tyre. Meanwhile, Ferrari and Mercedes opted for the medium compound and Red Bull used the hard tyre.