Formula 1 continues to break boundaries as it travels to the Republic of Singapore for Asia's first street race and the first night race in the history of the sport.
The anti-clockwise, 5.067km track will wind through the heart of one of the world's most striking and energetic cities. The drivers will race on public roads past landmarks such as the historic Anderson Bridge, St Andrews Road and Raffles Boulevard.
The Singapore event is the second Grand Prix of the season to take place in a city state, Monaco being the other location. However, unlike the tight, twisting Monte Carlo track, the Asian street circuit is wider and significantly faster. An average speed of about 175km/h was calculated for this track. The average speed during qualifying in Monaco this year was about 160km/h. The drivers are expected to reach top speeds of approximately 290km/h along the main straight.
The temporary lighting system is in itself a feat of engineering. 108,423 metres of power cables, 240 steel pylons and around 1,500 light projectors are installed, creating light that is four times brighter than that used at sports stadiums.
The drivers will take to the track for the first time for Friday's opening free practice at 19:00hrs. Qualifying is the latest session of the weekend, kicking off at 22:00hrs, with the race starting at 20:00hrs on Sunday. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will be adopting a bespoke nighttime work programme, to ensure the drivers and all other team members are able to function to their optimum level during the night. Usually the acclimatisation process is vital for the fly-away races that are in significantly different timezones to Europe, however for the Singapore Grand Prix the opposite is true.
Lewis, what are you looking forward to in Singapore?
"I'm looking forward to visiting the country, trying the food, seeing what the track is like, seeing what it will be like to race on. It is going to be an exciting weekend. The race will be quite a fun challenge, and I like a challenge! I've never raced at night before, but I don't think it is going to be a problem. It doesn't seem to be a problem in other sports and there have been huge preparations for this, so I think it will be great. We are racing on another street circuit, which are a particular favourite of mine. From what I understand it is wide and fairly flowing in nature, which is not what you usually expect from a street circuit, but it sounds like it will be pretty spectacular."
Have your physical preparations changed in any way for this race?
"Singapore is going to be a unique challenge for every member of the team. Our doctor has prepared a very precise schedule for the drivers to stick to because all the sessions are so late in the day. Essentially we must not acclimatise to the local time, which is totally different to how we normally operate. Our training programmes ensure that over a race weekend we are at peak performance during the afternoons and as a result we are going to be staying in European time so this doesn't get disrupted. Apparently not acclimatising is much harder than adapting, because your body naturally wants to change. For the drivers, our meal, waking and sleeping rhythms will all be in European time, for example we will get up early afternoon for breakfast, have supper at 1am and go to bed at around 3am. It will be very different preparation to any other race but we'll try and do the best job we can."
The anti-clockwise, 5.067km track will wind through the heart of one of the world's most striking and energetic cities. The drivers will race on public roads past landmarks such as the historic Anderson Bridge, St Andrews Road and Raffles Boulevard.
The Singapore event is the second Grand Prix of the season to take place in a city state, Monaco being the other location. However, unlike the tight, twisting Monte Carlo track, the Asian street circuit is wider and significantly faster. An average speed of about 175km/h was calculated for this track. The average speed during qualifying in Monaco this year was about 160km/h. The drivers are expected to reach top speeds of approximately 290km/h along the main straight.
The temporary lighting system is in itself a feat of engineering. 108,423 metres of power cables, 240 steel pylons and around 1,500 light projectors are installed, creating light that is four times brighter than that used at sports stadiums.
The drivers will take to the track for the first time for Friday's opening free practice at 19:00hrs. Qualifying is the latest session of the weekend, kicking off at 22:00hrs, with the race starting at 20:00hrs on Sunday. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes will be adopting a bespoke nighttime work programme, to ensure the drivers and all other team members are able to function to their optimum level during the night. Usually the acclimatisation process is vital for the fly-away races that are in significantly different timezones to Europe, however for the Singapore Grand Prix the opposite is true.
Lewis, what are you looking forward to in Singapore?
"I'm looking forward to visiting the country, trying the food, seeing what the track is like, seeing what it will be like to race on. It is going to be an exciting weekend. The race will be quite a fun challenge, and I like a challenge! I've never raced at night before, but I don't think it is going to be a problem. It doesn't seem to be a problem in other sports and there have been huge preparations for this, so I think it will be great. We are racing on another street circuit, which are a particular favourite of mine. From what I understand it is wide and fairly flowing in nature, which is not what you usually expect from a street circuit, but it sounds like it will be pretty spectacular."
Have your physical preparations changed in any way for this race?
"Singapore is going to be a unique challenge for every member of the team. Our doctor has prepared a very precise schedule for the drivers to stick to because all the sessions are so late in the day. Essentially we must not acclimatise to the local time, which is totally different to how we normally operate. Our training programmes ensure that over a race weekend we are at peak performance during the afternoons and as a result we are going to be staying in European time so this doesn't get disrupted. Apparently not acclimatising is much harder than adapting, because your body naturally wants to change. For the drivers, our meal, waking and sleeping rhythms will all be in European time, for example we will get up early afternoon for breakfast, have supper at 1am and go to bed at around 3am. It will be very different preparation to any other race but we'll try and do the best job we can."
Source:
http://www.lewishamilton.com