“Tenth time’s the charm.”
Welcome back to another double helping of Dre’s Race Review. In this weekend’s edition, South East Asia takes centre stage with F1 heading back to Singapore and MotoGP in Indonesia. This edition tackles the former, with Singapore also taking the role of the season’s final Sprint Race weekend of 2026. With it, Max Verstappen goes back-to-back and finally takes a win in Singapore. Let’s talk about it.
A Different Singapore Sling
Now, I know what you’re thinking – Singapore as a Sprint weekend sucks. And I’m largely in agreement. This is a track for action and flashpoints if you get on the right side of the coin flip, not a track for great action in general. But it does throw up some interesting challenges. Firstly, only one practice session for the weekend, and it’s in a largely unrepresentative time, in the daytime. On top of that, Sprint weekends have tighter tyre allocations – Only 12 sets for the weekend (2 Hard, 4 Medium, 6 Soft), which can make things tricky for the big hitters if they’re expected to go deep in multiple qualifying sessions.
But first, another tangent, because Sprint Qualifying gave us another shitter. Two separate issues plagued SQ1. Firstly, the live timing for the session failed in the final minutes, meaning we didn’t know Gabriel Bortoleto had knocked out Arvid Lindblad until after Sky Sports F1 slammed in another commercial break – Just keep watching. But worse, it was revealed after the session that due to a human error from Race Control, certain cars in the field had their Overtake Mode switched off for 27 seconds, which did affect a number of laps.
This is the last thing the FIA needed. Fresh off an embarrassing extra hour delay to the Bahrain GP in Malaysia only five days prior, now they’ve accidentally tainted the result of a qualifying session due a human error. Now, I need to stress, there’s a boatload of Abu Dhabi 2021 tinfoil sleepers that genuinely believe the sport is rigged, so I feel like a disclaimer is necessary here.
Race Control has a manual operation for many facets of the car, and have done for a good while now. Remember, we had manual overrides for DRS as far back as its invention back in 2011, and that did fail too on very rare occasions. Yes, they operated off software too (We’ve had that in F1 since the 80’s), and sometimes, software fails. It’s deeply unfortunate, but sometimes, these things happen. And the live timing is a collaborative effort between the FIA and FOM, so it’d be harsh to fully blame the governing body too. The timing just couldn’t have been worse.
I get it. We’re all frustrated at these regulations. From super-clipping to yo-yo passing, to now compromises on software in spectacular fashion. 2030 in the eyes of many can’t come soon enough. I don’t know if it’s just fatigue or whether I’m being overly generous, but I think this was just an unfortunate coincidence and nothing more. Please, I beg, don’t be one of those people who took Carlos Sainz’s early uninformed comments at face value or who goes to Instagram and calls conspiracy without feeling the shame of what these people think is an unfair sport… yet keep watching.
Anyway, we got to the end of Sprint Qualifying, and it was Max Verstappen who took his first pole position in Singapore. George Russell would end up second in a small reprieve – He was already walking into the weekend facing a back of the grid start for having to replace his engine after his Bahrain GP failure as it wasn’t salvageable. It’s also led to this strange dynamic where he’s running the old spec car, as Antonelli is running the new spec, the upgrade package that Mercedes are unsure as to why it’s not working. Mercedes are out partying like it’s 2024 again.
Saturday morning’s Sprint took place next, and it’ll never not be weird seeing Singapore in the daytime. And we got another torrential downpour right before the start, and this one was incredibly localised. Sector 1 was soaked, as well as the back end of the final corner sequence. But the middle of the track, virtually dry.
So, another delayed start and a 30-minute delay. Now, Disclaimer #2 here (Because you thought one was going to be enough in this section but here we are.) – I get why it’s frustrating seeing weather delays. Simply put, the Inters are too good at their job. They displace a massive amount of water to make wet tracks viable. They can run as a glorified slick for a disturbingly long amount of time. And their biggest issue, they kick up so much spray from their displacement that it can affect the visibility of their cars following. Until we can fix that final issue, the sport has to lean on the side of caution and wait for a track to dry to a degree before we can race. It was a working issue for the sport, but we somewhat gave up on it after wheel covers were found to not work.
Once we finally got going, it was a standing start, and George Russell took the early lead after Red Bull’s ugly bogging down at the start was exposed yet again. But it didn’t last long – Barely a lap in fact as Russell lost it coming out of the final corner and crashed into the inside wall. This set off a string of technical failures – Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll hit each other and both cars were out there. Isack Hadjar and Franco Colapinto both suffered power-unit faults while the Safety Car was out. We joked in our Discord server that we set an over/under on retirements to 2.5 and the Overs had it before we got to Lap 3.
Alex Albon got caught in a chain reaction crash, driving into the back of Valtteri Bottas and Gabriel Bortoleto, and all three would eventually retire from the damage. And then the big one – Lando Norris taking a final lap swing at Oscar Piastri and spinning them both. Norris dropped to eighth as he was able to recover, while Piastri hit the outside wall and was out at Turn 4. The stewards deemed it no further action as neither party was deemed at fault. But it was rather embarrassing for McLaren to take. The actual move itself I believe was judged correctly. Norris takes a dive and he does get enough of his car alongside to demand space at the apex. But the problem is that the hole was always shrinking, Lando was over the curb trying to make room, Oscar didn’t give enough back and contact was inevitable.
The issue I have with all this is Lando’s decision making. This was a final lap, desperation heave with no net gain for the team and 1 extra point for Lando if he makes it. Is that worth the risk to send it to your teammate? We buried Charles Leclerc for running Lewis Hamilton off the road at Monza. This was far more crazy in my opinion. McLaren needs points to hold off Red Bull, who are now only 18 points behind in the Constructor’s battle for third. And Norris just pissed seven points away as a result of a needless crash. Andrea Stella was pissed, and he should be, the basics of Papaya Rules have always been not to hit each other, and Lando did the deed here. Welp.
Max Verstappen took a comfortable Sprint win over Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, with the Ferrari’s swapping around for Grand Prix Qualifying…
Singapore Be Singapore’
I’d argue the biggest flashpoint of this race happened after about 500 yards. As has been the case for a lot of 2026, Ferrari gets off the line better than Red Bull with its smaller turbo. And Charles had three quarters of a car alongside Verstappen on the run to Turn 1. Despite Max pinning him to the left, if Charles commits to the move at T1, he probably comes out in front as Max almost has to use the T2 escape road. But he backs out of it and lets Max hang him around the outside. The Discord server sighed and collectively groaned.
And that’s the thing with Singapore. Being the leader here usually gives you so much control. The passing delta is around two seconds per lap so unless your car is a donkey, you can hold onto the lead, and that’s what Max did early on, playing the long game to make Leclerc use up more of his tyre to stay with him. He was just starting to do so until we got an early VSC for Gabriel Bortoleto’s gearbox failing on Lap 8. But it didn’t take long for Max to start pushing that gap out to 2-3 seconds after Charles lost overtake mode.
This is where the race took a bit of a turn for the Scuderia. Lewis started on the medium tyre and was struggling by the end of the teens, he boxed early to switch to Softs, while said Softs just kept going and kept their pace relatively well. It’s not everyday you hear: “Target +15” on the team radio. The soft ended up being capable of going half distance with no real drawback and it kinda killed this one as a spectacle, not gonna lie.
Max and the McLaren’s ended up going long to see if the tyre delta would work long term. Max on his mediums was now running to the end, as was Leclerc, with Hamilton now on the softs but still under pressure from Norris and Antonelli. But the dynamic shifted again on Lap 39. Now according to Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s plan was to double-stack their cars and box both cars under VSC, but Hamilton said no and wanted to stay out in case another VSC came around. Leclerc made the second stop work and actually cut Verstappen’s gap to eight seconds on the used soft tyre, while Hamilton’s VSC never landed. The problem was, he was stuck in no-man’s land because stopping again under green meant risking him falling behind the much faster Oscar Piastri in 6th, who had to box again anyway due to a slow puncture.
Hamilton slipped down the order and even had Piastri pass him anyway on the penultimate lap. Hamilton apologised to his team on the radio, it was his call to stay out late on, and it just didn’t work. I think even with the compromise on calls, LH’s tyre management just wasn’t great at any point in the race to make it work.
But at the front, it was Max Verstappen who in his 10th attempt, finally wins at Singapore. It’s very telling that as soon as Red Bull gets a car in the window, Max can so often do the rest. And it ticked a lot of the boxes. The slower, more technical natured Singapore to twin up with the more outlier, more medium-to-high speed Sepang. If he can win in Austin in a fortnight’s time, a track where I think there’s a lot of perks to a lot of the cars at the front, a power shift will be in play. It begs the question, how has it now been two years in a row that Red Bull’s only been strong in the final third of a season as opposed to out of the gate? A good problem to have.
Charles Leclerc drove a perfect race to finish second, and Kimi Antonelli, even with a pretty anonymous weekend by his new standards took a solid third, passing Lando Norris late on while boxed in against Hamilton. He has an extreme outside chance to clinch in Austin, but needs to win and outscore Russell by 23 points or more (9th or lower) to do it. So unlikely, but with the way the racing Gods keep striking down Russell with thunderbolts, who knows?
The Lightning Round
Editor’s Note: In the time since I had the first draft of this written, it turns out Ferrari had a radio communication error right around the time of the second VSC, which meant Hamilton couldn’t hear the instruction to box. Credit to The Race for report on it, as Lewis himself was unwell after the race was over, skipping the media debrief post-race.
I’m getting fed up with people saying Hulkenberg shouldn’t be in F1 because he’s 39. No. He’s still really, really solid in the midfield, and another four points in P8. Four points finishes for Audi since Bortoleto last did back in Belgium. Oh and that night livery this weekend? *chef’s kiss*
10 places gained for Russell on a track where you need seconds in hand to pass. P9’s a very solid job for George all things considered. Shame this weekend was dead on arrival. Literally.
If you said to me Liam Lawson was a Top 5 driver on the grid for this season, I’d likely agree with you. I like Alan Permane a lot with the job he’s done at Racing Bulls but I’d be calling a red flag in a heartbeat if he thinks Nikola Tsolov’s a massive improvement (Strongly doubt it.)
We should know next week if we’re going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi. This is quickly feeling like a very expensive game of chicken. Dennis Noyes, the biking journalist made a very valid point. There’s allegedly around £100m’s worth of hosting fees on the line here. If F1 calls off these races, they’re liable for the bill as they cancelled the event and the promoters were ready to go. If the promoters call it off, they’re liable instead. So, who backs out first. (And rebels hitting Riyadh airport, even if it’s a neighbouring Saudi Arabia, isn’t going to settle anyone’s nerves.)
I’ve tried to be nice about this, but I think Valtteri Bottas really is cooked as a driver at this point. Esteban Ocon’s on the free market, and I don’t think there’s a good reason not to take him at this point. And with Colton Herta not getting the extra practice sessions he needs to get to 40 Superlicense points, it looks like Cadillac has abandoned their big overarching plans for the future. So what next?
James Vowles’ ambitious proposal to widen the cost cap for teams towards the bottom of the standings has seemingly been shot down by the paddock, with them needing six teams to flip it for 2027. I didn’t actually hate the idea – There have been BIG disparities between the top and middle teams in F1 for the last four or five seasons, but I’d have liked to have seen what the structure would have been to the change. Would it be a rigid scale, like the windtunnel allowance rule? Or a clause that kicks in once a certain gap threshold is reached? Still, I always thought it had a slim chance – Other teams have agendas. For example, Mercedes wants more room to pay its staff, while Haas doesn’t even spend up to the cap limit to save costs, so they were never going to vote for something that widens their spending limit to their direct rivals.
Speaking of which, how big a hot seat is Vowles going to have if newcomers Audi beat them at the first time of asking?
Biggin Hill needs to stop being so scared to break away from the leaders briefly to show some action on track like seeing Ollie Bearman, Isack Hadjar and others fighting in the midfield. Just because you now have the technology to have a picture-in-picture onboard screen doesn’t mean it needs to have the better action dumped on it. We can wait 20 seconds.
The Verdict: 4/10 (Poor) – And I think I’ve been slightly generous here. I said the race to Turn 1 would be critical here and it was. And even then, I don’t think Ferrari has the legs for Red Bull at the moment. Beyond that minor intrigue, nothing really to see here. See you in Austin.
