Singapore's F1 track is almost ready for the much-anticipated night race

Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo is not looking forward to F1 racing at the new Singapore street circuit at night:

The drivers are concentrating on what needs to be improved and on the next grand prix in Singapore. But I have the impression that it’s another track where you can’t overtake, Valencia-style. To go on with these circuits spells an ugly future for Formula One.

What will the track actually be like? Here’s some track maps, images and video that give an impression of the new Singapore street track.

Formula 1 takes a leap into the unknown in more ways than one at Singapore. As well as it being F1′s first visit to Singapore it will also be the first of what could soon become many night races on the calendar.

The second new venue on the F1 calendar this year is, like Valencia, also a street circuit. But the tight, slow configuration and diverse scenery promises the track will very different in nature and appearance to the Spanish circuit.

Track configuration

Singapore street track map for the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix - click to enalrge

More Singapore street circuit maps: Singapore street circuit infomation

Turns 1/2/3

The first section of track appears to be purpose-built, with a left-hander leading into a right curve and then a tighter left-hander. It brings the cars onto Republic Avenue/Boulevard. This first corner has been eased since the original design of the track which should reduce the chances of a first lap pile-up, but might reduce its effectiveness as a place for overtaking.

Turns 4/5

Turn four is a slight left curve which will surely be tackled flat-out. Turn five, a right-hander, brings the cars onto Raffles Boulevard. This is the longest flat-out section on the course and a good exit from the corner will be vital for overtaking to be possible further down the straight.

As the cars pass through this section they first go under a slip-road and then the East Coast Parkway road as they apprach turn five, and under the same road again after they exit the corner. These covered sections could lead to wet/dry patches in the event of rainfall during the race.

Turns 6/7

Turn six look like another flat-out kink before the cars turn left onto Nicoll Highway. This bend, turn seven, looks like being the most likely spot for overtaking as the cars should be at their maximum speed at this point.

Nearby buildings: The Pan Pacific Hotel and Tower is on the inside of turn six. Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre is one the right on the approach to turn seven.

Turns 8/9

Right onto Stamford Road, left onto St. Andrew’s Road. What appear to be anguler, 90-degree turns on the track maps might actually be a bit less tight as the roads look fairly wide and these turns in particular seem to have wide apices.

Nearby buildings: Swissotel The Stamford on the outside of turn nine.

Turn 10a/b/c

Originally described as turns 10 and 11, this section is instead now referred to as 10a/b/c as Singapore GP director of technical and race operations Michael McDonough explains: “Previously what was turn 10 and 11 was actually three corners close together in a chicane configuration, created to provide the right geometry and corner speeds, due to the lack of straight ahead run off in this part of the circuit.”

Nearby buildings: The Supreme Court is on the approach to turn ten on the left, and as the cars exit the tri-corner they pass the Singapore Parliament. That’s right – they’re closing the roads around their Supreme Court and Parliament to hold this race. The Supreme Court’s website even says “The Supreme Court has been notified by the Traffic Police that in preparation for the F1 Race in Singapore from 26 Sept to 28 Sept 2008, some partial or full road closures will be effected from 20 September to 2 October 2008 around the vicinity of the Supreme Court.”

Turns 11/12

As the cars pass from St. Andrew’s road onto Connaught Drive they pass through a fast right/left flick. After this the cars cross the distinctive Anderson Bridge, which is only 10m wide.

Nearby buildings: Victoria Concert Hall is on the inside of turn 11.

Turn 13

Esplanade Drive at night

As the cars leave the bridge the track bends very slightly to the left just at the braking zone for the next tight right-hander, turn 13. From here they cross a much wider bridge up Esplanade Drive.

Turn 14

This is Raffles Avenue with the Esplanade buildings in the background

A right-hand turn which takes them onto Raffles Avenue and back towards the purpose-built section of track.

Nearby buildings: The twin domes of the Esplanade on the inside of turn 14.

Turns 15/16/17

The official track diagram (above) suggests turn 15 is a fast left-hand curve leading into the much tighter turn 16 which takes the cars in front of the seating gallery along the river. Turn 17 bends left and looks faster.

Turns 18/19/20/21

Singapore’s answer to La Piscine – the swimming pool section at Monaco. But there is one intriguing difference – after turn 18 the cars pass underneath one of the spectator stands! It seems to briefly return them to Raffles Avenue before turning off again as the cars pass once more under the East Coast Parkway. Turns 20 and 21 look very similar to 16 and 17.

Turns 22/23

A pair of left-handers, though it looks like the second one may not need any braking, which bring the cars back to the start/finish area.

Nearby buildings: The Singapore Flyer, a giant London Eye-style big wheel, on the inside of turns 22 and 23.

Start/finish straight video

This video shows part of the start/finish straight at night under floodlighting:

Thanks to Kilwa for the video!

Explore the Singapore Street Circuit online

Here are some resources for finding out more about the Singapore F1 track:

• Singapore 3D models – 3D models of the local area for Google Earth, including some of the buildings around the circuit
• Red Bull preview video of the circuit
• Singapore Flyer panoramic photo – You can see much of the surrounding city around the track from this photograph from the Singapore Flyer
• Photos from around the Singapore track on Flickr

Main image (C) Steel Wool via Flickr

Every four years at some point during the Olympics the debate rumbles around – why is motorsport not included? Usually this is dismissed out of hand – the Olympics is a battle of man not machine, it favours minority sports not the mainstream sports we usually follow.

However I believe that there are good reasons for motorsport to be included in the Olympics. Firstly top race drivers are as talented in their field as many of those competing and that equally most drivers (Paul Tracy excepted) are a great deal more athletic than most Olympic competitors.

OK, but isn’t motorsport all about the equipment and not the driver?

Yes in most levels of motorsport it is, which is why a driver-centric Olympic tournament would be fantastic. Likewise, I would argue that many Olympic sports are reliant on the competitors equipment in much the same way. Equestrian events are all about horsepower, cycling is partly won by the bike, sailing is essential one make racing on water. In short, to exclude motorsport from the Olympics on the basis that is about machine rather than driver is a poor argument.

Yes, we could quibble over the IOC would ever allow motor racing into the Olympics (of course they won’t it’s even written in their rules somwhere). Or we could figure out how a motor racing Olympics event might work, which is much more fun.

For motorsport to be included in the Olympics it would have to be proven beyond all doubt that the machinery is equal. Anyone who have ever raced in an arrive-and-drive or one make series will know this is nigh-on impossible to verify.

Luckily I have a solution. Now, much as I would love to see a knock out competition in Formula Fords a la Formula Ford Festival, it’s not practical because some drivers would be better suited to the car.

It is for that reason that the format for the Olympic Motorsport Event – to be run at Brands Hatch in 2012, is as follows:

Four race events on successive days. Each event, depending on entries, is on a knock-out heats and finals basis:

Event 1 – Formula Ford – Single seaters with no aerodynamic grip, a battle of ability in the finest ‘racing’ cars ever built. I would say that the latest Mygale chassis should suit nicely.

Event 2 – Renault Clios – Low grip, low power, a real challenge for the top drivers to gain the advantage and it should produce some great racing

Event 3 – Formula Three – Single seaters, big on grip, slicks and wings racing. Unlikely to produce a great race but will bring driver technical ability to the fore

Event 4 – Ginetta G50 – Big hairy sportscars, again it will be set-up and technical skills rather than dog fighting which will come to the fore.

How would the drivers be selected? All countries are automatically guaranteed a single entry, however to enter two drivers a country must have one or more driver currently competing at the top of international motorsport – F1, IRL, NASCAR, WTCC and DTM. Why these selections? Well they are the top series, but also those where there are the biggest Olympic stakeholders
And the teams? My picks would be as follows:

UK – Andy Priaulx (hugely diverse) and Anthony Davidson (McLaren not wishing to release Lewis Hamilton, inevitably)
USA – Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart
Germany – Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel
France – Sebastian Bourdais and Sebastien Loeb
Finland – Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen
Australia – Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo
Brazil – Tony Kanaan and Felipe Massa
Japan – Kazuki Nakajima and Sakon Yamomoto
Spain – Fernando Alonso and Andy Soucek
Italy – Jarno Trulli and Valentino Rossi
Norway – Petter Solberg
Russia – Vitali Petrov
Portugal – Pedro Lamy
Poland – Robert Kubica
New Zealand – Scott Dixon and Brendon Hartley
Netherlands – Guido van der Garde
India – Narain Karthikeyan
Czech Republic – Tomas Enge
China – Ho Ping Tung
Canada – Paul Tracy and Robert Wickens

Nominate more motor racing Olympians – or devise your own motor racing Olympic event – in the comments…

Olympians, like F1 drivers, told to keep their celebrations under control

And if that’s not enough to be getting on with you can check out the top 100 most-commented F1 Fanatic articles, join the discussion in the F1 Fanatic Forum, or read a selection of the best F1 Fanatic articles and series.

Unfortunately I recently learned some people were having problems with the new comment pages with Gravatars. It’s a particularly odd problem as it doesn’t seem to be browser-specific and I haven’t been able to replicate it. If you’re handy with web code and/or WordPress and want to take a look a description of the problem is here.

In the meantime I’ve rolled back the last set of changes made to the sites which unfortunately has meant temporarily losing the Gravatars function. I’m very sorry to those of you who can’t see the excellent Gravatars many of you have added to the site recently. Rest assured fixing the problem will be a top priority when I get back and I hope to have them restored as soon as possible. Gravatars are still working on the forum, however.

In the meantime enjoy the new posts on F1 Fanatic.

It will be business as usual for the Belgian Grand Prix including Live Blog coverage of every session. See you then!

F1.com has live timing but no live video

F1.com, Formula 1′s official site, has a lot going for it. The live timing during F1 sessions is invaluable and it has some insightful news and features particularly on technical developments.

But it falls far short of what it could provide in terms of interaction with fans, providing F1 video or other useful material.

Here’s four things I’d add to Formula1.com if I were in charge. What would you change about the site?

Bernie Ecclestone doesn’t get the internet. He calls it ‘the ether’, and his Formula One Group has been painfully slow in waking up to its potential because Ecclestone doesn’t see how he can make money out of it. It hardly helps that he doesn’t run advertising on F1.com.

As a result, F1.com lacks many of the interest features found on other official motor racing sites like indycar.com, nascar.com, motogp.com, wrc.com and even a1gp.com. Here’s what I’d do to improve Formula1.com:

Live F1 video

Those of us in Britain are fortunate enough to be able to see F1 races, qualifying and practice sessions (except Saturday practice) online via itv-f1.com. (There are ways for people outside Britain to hack into the feed as well).

But the feed is interrupted with advertising and has no better footage than the standard coverage. There must be huge numbers of fans out there who’d pay a reasonable fee to be able to watch F1 over the internet on the high-quality Premiere feed instead of the standard footage ITV gets.

Presumably Bernie Ecclestone doesn’t want to offer this because he thinks it will devalue his television contracts. I think it’s a missed opportunity to attract F1 fans whose local coverage of the sport is poor or non-existent.

F1 video archive

Watch F1 video on F1.com? It'd be quicker to wait for the season review DVD.

Ecclestone attempts to place stringest restrictions on the re-use of Formula 1 footage. Again, this is intended to keep the value of his TV contracts high.

Formula One Group uses the NetResult company to pull F1 videos off sharing sites such as YouTube, but with little success. There is so much interest in F1 that most deleted videos are quickly uploaded again.

Official F1 video on F1.com is limited to a short highlights clip of each round and the execution of it is decidedly third-rate. There’s no individual clips of particular drivers or incidents, the video has to buffer in full before you watch it and you have to agree to a disclaimer every time you go to the video player.

Ecclestone needs to stop seeing this as a weakness and harness it as a strength. Start putting proper F1 video clips on F1.com and either charge people to see them or run advertising on the site.

Fans’ photos and videos

F1.com’s interest in the wider F1 fan base goes little further than a perfunctory poll on the front page. No forum, no commenting, no social interaction at all.

Other motor sports’ official sites like indycar.com encourage fans to share photographs of races they’ve been to. Instead Formula One Group have even ordered the removal of fans’ videos of races from YouTube.

Preventing F1 fans from sharing videos they’ve shot themselves not only needlessly hampers the promotion of the sport, it also robs us of some excellent footage. Last year I posted five excellent amateur videos from the 2007 F1 season including the famous film from the Japanese Grand Prix that almost changed the course of the championship.

To share your F1 images or videos with F1 Fanatic contact me via the contact form, Flickr or Youtube.

Get into F1 blogging

I don’t mean to blow my own trumpet here, but I think Formula 1 has one of the most diverse and interesting blogging scenes of any sport.

F1.com should harness it and bring in guest bloggers to write posts and engage with the wider community.

And of course we’d all love to read the Bernie Blog…

How would you improve F1.com? Leave your ideas below.

What garbage. They were looking at footage of a collision between Jason Plato and Tom Onslow-Cole in this afternoon’s third British Touring Car race at Knockhill.

Plato is chasing Fabrizio Giovanardi (Onslow-Cole’s team mate) in the championship and had moved down the inside of Onslow-Cole at the hairpin. Plato appeared to have left enough room at the exit for Onslow-Cole, but the Vauxhall driver slewed into the side of Plato’s seat, tipping him straight into the barrier.

It all looked a bit too convenient to have been an accident. Especially as Onslow-Cole had already hit Plato’s team mate Darren Turner in race one. Not just hit – but shoved him onto the grass as the two headed for turn three.

Vauxhall are unhappy with what they perceive as technical rules that favour Seat and it was hard to avoid the impression that Onslow-Cole’s instructions for this race were to level things up by walloping Seats when the opportunity presented itself.

Plato won the first two raes but, with Giovanardi in his wheel tracks, made virtually no impression on the Italian’s championship lead. Then in the semi-reverse grid race he found himself duelling with Vauxhalls when the inevitable hit happened.

What is particularly disappointing is that Giovanardi doesn’t need dubious driving from his team mates to win the title. He is gigantically experienced in the ways of touring car racing and every weekend we see him dodging disaster and racking up the points.

Even with the Seat’s performance advantage (Turner won race three) Plato would be unlikely to beat Giovanardi. The dodgy driving by his team mates is not necessary.

F1 Fanatic reader Aled is looking for a good biography of Ayrton Senna

Aled sent me an email asking if I could recommend some F1 books for him to read over the summer:

I am going on holiday in a few weeks, I want a book or two to read. I want a good book on Senna, one that will help me realise how so many people are fascinated by him as a driver and person. Any recommendations?

I did two articles on good F1 books to read over the summer last year: essential summer reads and more essential summer reads. Here’s a couple more books worth taking a look at – plus one on Ayrton Senna for Aled…

”The Death of Ayrton Senna” (Richard Williams, 1999)

Sure there are bigger Senna biographies out there but don’t confuse quantity with quality: a lot of Senna books are dross.

This is different: concise and free of that fawning tone some of Senna’s biographers adopt. Its title gives the impression that it’s only about Senna’s death – but actually this is as good an account of his life as you’ll find.

Read the full review of “The Death of Ayrton Senna”
Buy “The Death of Ayrton Senna”

Here are some other biographies of Ayrton Senna I’ve reviewed:

• “Ayrton Senna: The Whole Story” (Christopher Hilton, 2004)
• “The Life of Senna” (Tom Rubython)
• “Ayrton Senna: As Time Goes By” (Christopher Hilton, 1999)

”Winning is not Enough” (Jackie Stewart, 2007)

One of my favourite books of last year and a popular title among F1 Fanatic readers too. Stewart tells his own story in a matter-of-fact fashion with little trace of ego and a lot of warmth.

When I interviewed him after it was published he said he originally envisaged it as being in two volumes and you can see why – it’s packed with stories and anecdotes. It’s a hefty hardback though (the paperback comes out in October), so it might not be the best book for the beach. Otherwise you can’t really fault it. The DVD is an excellent bonus extra as well.

Read the full review of “Winning is not enough”
Buy “Winning Is Not Enough: The Autobiography”

“The Chariot Makers: Assembling the perfect Formula 1 car” (Steve Matchett, 2005)

Ex-Benetton mechanic Steve Matchett takes us through how an F1 car is built from the ground-up. But it’s not a book for hardcore techies – treat it as a quick and (above all) entertaining introduction to F1 car technology.

There’s a slightly odd narrative running through it where Matchett is explaining all this to a couple of people he met while waiting for a plane, but it doesn’t detract from the meat of the book. Matchett’s not short of an opinion or two as well which adds to the fun.

Read the full review of “The Chariot Makers”
Buy “The Chariot Makers: Assembling the Perfect Formula 1 Car”

Looking for more F1 book recommendations? Here’s the full list of F1 Fanatic book reviews.

Buying books from Amazon via the above links gives a commission to F1 Fanatic at no cost to you.

A while ago we speculated on what Codemasters’ 2009 F1 game will be like. That article has been one of the most popular on this site in the past few days and has loads of comments with people sharing their ideas for what should be in the game.

It’s clear there’s a lot of interest in how Codemasters are going to treat the Formula 1 brand when they release their game next year.

To get an idea of what it might be like, I played their most recent title, Race Driver: GRID.

OK let’s get one thing out of the way to begin with – Race Driver: GRID is an arcade-style racer but Codemasters have admitted their F1 game will have both simulator and arcade modes.

That makes sense because although a basic arcade pick-up-and play racer like GRID is fine for casual followers of the sport, more dedicated F1 fans will want a full-on, ultra-realistic driving experience.

I tested out the Xbox 360 version of GRID although, as the 2009 F1 game will be, it is multi-format and is available on PS3 and PC DVD.

GRID is a real mixed bag offering an enormous breath of racing modes: Touring Cars, Formula Three, plus more exotic varieties like drift racing.

In the early stages of the game the sheer number of different racing series available gets a bit bewildering. Especially as, in each race, you’re dumped into the car for two or three laps without any practice.

None of this would be a problem if the driving dynamics weren’t so iffy. Back at the start of this series of games the two original TOCA titles (based on the British Touring Car Championships) had driving models that were accessible but offered a decent challenge and, above all, allowed you to get stuck into wheel-banging racing without worrying about spinning off on every lap.

I don’t think Race Driver: GRID strikes that balance as well – in fact I don’t think any of the Race Driver games have. Unless you use the difficulty settings to neuter the challenge of driving entirely the unpredictable handling will have you spearing off on every lap.

This really gets in the way of enjoying what’s good about the game. I can’t think of many other titles where you can drive a Formula Three car around Spa-Francorchamps.

The graphics are excellent and the track configurations are bang up to date (we can’t blame Codemasters for the uglification job Hermann Tilke did on Spa) although I thought a lot of the gradient on the tracks had been scaled down – Eau Rouge didn’t look half as steep as it is in real life. Oh, and the fictitious circuits are rubbish.

If you can persevere with the control system the game gets a lot more rewarding as you unlock new racing modes and cars. I liked the fact that your team chief communicates with you by radio during the races and you can even pick a name for him to use – unfortunately ‘Keith’ wasn’t an option for I plumped for ‘Mongoose’.

GRID is not going to satisfy an appetite for a vivid, realistic racing experience – and it’s no rival to Gran Turismo 5 or Forza Motorsport 2. But for a quick blast of racing fun, with more racing series on offer than you’d find in a copy of Autosport, it has a lot to commend it.

F1 Fanatic rating

More on Codemasters’ 2009 F1 game

• Codemasters’ 2009 F1 game wish list
• 2009 F1 game will be sim – Codemasters
• Good news, bad news: Codemasters to make 2009 F1 game
• NASCAR 09 review

Buy Race Driver: GRID for the Xbox 360
Buy Race Driver: GRID for the PS3
Buy Race Driver: GRID for PC DVD
Buy Race Driver: GRID for the Nintendo DS

Buying Race Driver: GRID from Amazon via the above links gives a commission to F1 Fanatic at no cost to you.

More racing game reviews

Join in the German Grand Prix qualifying live blog below. Here are some links to where you can find live F1 video (if you’ve found any new places to watch F1 live online, please let us know!) and live F1 timing. The weather is expected to stay dry for this session.

To read earlier messages in the live blog it will be easier if you turn off automatic scrolling using the button above.

Launch the F1 Fanatic Live blog in a new window by clicking here.

Let us know how you’re following F1 today and share your thoughts on the weekend’s action. Please note during very busy periods there may be a slight delay in posting comments, and repeat comments may not be posted.

Join in the German Grand Prix final practice live blog below. Here are some links to where you can find live F1 video (if you’ve found any new places to watch F1 live online, please let us know!) and live F1 timing.

To read earlier messages in the live blog it will be easier if you turn off automatic scrolling using the button above.

Launch the F1 Fanatic Live blog in a new window by clicking here.

Let us know how you’re following F1 today and share your thoughts on the weekend’s action. Please note during very busy periods there may be a slight delay in posting comments, and repeat comments may not be posted.

Duncan from Vee8 is running the live blog once again. Join the coverage from free practice 2: