• Leclerc has not won since Austria back in July, and in recent races Ferrari have suffered an alarming slump in form to compound the reliability and race-management problems that have sabotaged their most competitive season for four years.
• Overtaking is extremely difficult around Marina Bay and races tend to be slow burn — with drivers managing their tyres in the early stages to ensure they need only one pit stop.
Image: FILE
Max Verstappen can become Formula 1 world champion for the second time at Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
It’s not very likely to happen — mathematically, Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez and Mercedes driver George Russell still have outside chances — but the race does mark the first time this season the title can theoretically be won.
Realistically, Leclerc is Verstappen’s only ‘rival’. Perez would not be allowed to beat Verstappen even if he was capable of it, and Russell and Sainz are so far behind in the standings they can be discounted.
To put himself in a position to be crowned as F1 returns to the Marina Bay circuit for the first time since 2019, Verstappen must first win. Any other result means the championship will last at least until the following race in Japan.
If Verstappen does win, Leclerc must finish lower than eighth for the Dutchman to be crowned — or lower than seventh if Verstappen also sets fastest lap. The fact Leclerc has never finished outside the top six when he has completed a race this year underlines the difficulty of Verstappen’s task.
If there is one track of the six remaining where Ferrari look to have a decent chance of beating Red Bull, it’s Singapore. The layout - lots of slow corners and few long straights - plays to their strengths. But it being Ferrari’s best chance for a victory is not the same as saying there is a good chance.
Leclerc has not won since Austria back in July, and in recent races Ferrari have suffered an alarming slump in form to compound the reliability and race-management problems that have sabotaged their most competitive season for four years.
But the one thing that gives them a chance in Singapore is they still have qualifying pace. Leclerc was on pole position for the last race in Italy. And Singapore is more about qualifying than any race other than Monaco.
Overtaking is extremely difficult around Marina Bay and races tend to be slow burn — with drivers managing their tyres in the early stages to ensure they need only one pit stop. So if Leclerc can qualify on pole — as he has done eight times in 16 races this year — he and Ferrari have the chance to control the race from the front.
Even if Leclerc does qualify up front, Verstappen might still be too tough an opponent. In recent races, he has seemed able to win from anywhere — 10th on the grid in Hungary, 14th in Belgium and seventh in Italy all ended with him on the top step of the podium.
And Ferrari’s strategists have not exactly provided evidence this season that they can be relied up on to calmly bring home a win, whatever the circumstances. Singapore seems, on paper, to not be that well suited to the Red Bull car, which is much stronger on faster tracks where its straight-line speed comes to the fore.
But it has been undergoing a development programme that has reduced its weight and made its behaviour much more to Verstappen’s liking than it was earlier in the season. And the defending champion is expecting another strong weekend.
“The car was very overweight,” he said after winning in Monza. “It was overweight in the wrong place of the car as well, so that’s why it was just understeering a lot more and prone to front [brake] locking.
“I don’t think it will be a problem in Singapore but maybe we encounter different kinds of things. We haven’t been there in a while. It’s normally quite a bumpy track, so we just need to work on the set-up, see how these cars react to the bumps and try to go as fast as possible.”
Verstappen carries himself with the confidence of a man who knows the title will come his way sooner or later. He has no need to rush anything, or over-reach. This year, he has allied his naked pace and talent to a maturity and control that has made him an even more formidable competitor.
Whether the title comes for him in Singapore this weekend, Suzuka seven days later, or Austin a fortnight after that, the only real remaining question marks are whether Verstappen can break a couple of significant records this year.
Those for number of wins in a season — 13 by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel — and consecutive wins — nine by Alberto Ascari and Vettel — are vulnerable. The first seems certain to fall — Verstappen has won 11 already, and there are still six races to go. As for the second, he is on a run of five wins. If he can beat the Ferraris in Singapore, that will be very much on the cards, too.
“It’s amazing what we are experiencing within the team,” Verstappen says. “We are having an amazing year. And it’s important to enjoy it as well. I think we’ve had a lot of different challenges on different kinds of tracks and now the car really seems to work at every track. And we are extremely pleased.”