Mercedes mysteriously lose pace, just imagine what Red Bull could do with power, and Vettel reminds us of his class...
Tuesday 22 September 2015 09:16, UK
Mercedes lose their power - but why?
So was it a case of Red Bull and Ferrari finding pace or Mercedes going missing in Singapore?
All of the above, with the cumulative effect amounting to a perfect storm in qualifying as the two Silver Arrows were relegated to the third row, 1.5 seconds off the pace. This wasn't merely a defeat but a thrashing - and the first the Silver Arrows have suffered since the dawn of F1's new turbo era.
But why?
Ferrari's recent engine upgrade didn't explain it, given that horsepower counts for so little around the tight and twisty Marina Bay circuit, and even if those circuit characteristics in part explained Red Bull's resurgence as the team finally did their talking on the track to trenchantly reveal how out of kilter their Renault engine is with the aerodynamic efficiency of their chassis, it only added to the Mercedes mystery. Lest we forget, the Silver Arrows were still a class apart around the equally-mean streets of Monaco four months ago.
The W06 is the car of the season, a car for all seasons indeed, and all circuits. Expect, all of a sudden, this weekend at Marina Bay. Not even some prior warning on Friday could help them. Despite trying a series of different set-up configurations, the team have struggled all weekend to find the W06's sweet-spot and their incomprehension was total on Saturday night. "I've gone full-circle, I started with something, went all the way round and went back to what I started with for qualifying," complained a bemused Nico Rosberg.
At least Lewis Hamilton was able to pinpoint a clear cause for the scale of his defeat, citing a lack of grip from his tyres, but the team remained adamant that their sudden setback couldn't be attributed to the change in tyre pressure Pirelli prescribed and the FIA have pledged to relentlessly enforce this weekend. The fact that all of the Mercedes-powered runners struggled in qualifying would seemingly suggest that their units might have been at fault - except, of course, that engine power isn't a powerful performance differential in Singapore and any issue with the Mercedes V6s would be easily traceable.
Instead, the impression on Saturday night was of a team scratching its collective head - and the rest of the paddock determined to enjoy it while it lasts.
Hamilton won't be breaking Senna's records this weekend
So Ayrton Senna can rest easy. His record for consecutive poles remains intact and, in all likelihood, his record of race victories will remain statistically superior to Lewis Hamilton's on Sunday night as well.
A win, which would draw him level with the Brazilian legend on 41 F1 victories from 161 races, is still possible for the world champion but in the words of his boss, Toto Wolff, Hamilton needs a "miracle" from the third row. Instead it's Vettel who is poised to prevail tomorrow, a feat which would actually put the German ahead of Senna in the list of all-time victors in F1 after claiming his 41st in July at the Hungaroring.
Who knows, but perhaps all the attention Hamilton received in the build-up to this weekend served as an inspiration to a driver who has form for this sort of thing - when he beat Fernando Alonso to the 2012 championship he also happened to beat the Spaniard to breaking Senna's record for being the youngest three-time world champion in F1 history as well.
Just imagine what Red Bull could do with a Mercedes engine...
Were Red Bull a little bit too good this weekend? Viewed from a certain perspective, their performance in Singapore aptly explained why Mercedes don't want to give them an engine and why Ferrari are wary of supplying a works-equivalent unit next year. If we didn't know already, this is a team which knows how to make a good chassis.
Renault have tried to suggest that the team's 2015 deficit isn't all down to their hybrid engine during the public slanging match, but in Monaco, Hungary and now Singapore - three tracks which are not engine dependent - Red Bull have found themselves fighting at the front of the grid.
So imagine what the RB11 could do with a Mercedes power unit in the back of it. It certainly seems fair to say the Silver Arrows wouldn't have enjoyed the same dominance of F1 over the last 18 months.
It remains to be seen who will power Red Bull in 2016, or indeed if they will even remain on the grid. One thing is for certain - they still know how to build a great car in Milton Keynes.
Vettel serves a reminder of his class
"We've got the finger back," said Martin Brundle as the Singapore GP polesitter climbed from his car and raised said digit to the photographers. Perhaps we should call it the offending digit because Vettel's celebration has always divided opinion.
So, if we were to title this movie 'The Return of Finger Boy', opinion does rather cast Vettel as villain rather than hero - which would be a crying shame and unsporting because his pole lap was blistering. "Near perfect," was how he described it.
With Vettel heading a Ferrari/Red Bull resurgence this weekend, if only for one race, it was what the season has been crying out for. "This is exactly what the sport needs," Jenson Button told Sky Sports F1. "This weekend is very important for Formula 1." It's another way of saying that Mercedes have had it their own way for much too long now. Imagine how competitive F1 could be with a few more results like Saturday's?
Of course, Mercedes took over from Red Bull at the top, with Vettel playing the role Hamilton now makes his own. Finger Boy crushed everyone in his path back then and a lot of people either got bored or annoyed. Saturday served as a reminder - like we've forgotten - of what the four-time champion can do; for the sake of a good scrap in the seasons to come, let's hope we see the finger more often than we have this past couple of seasons.
Still no Q3 for McLaren - but Alonso in place to pounce on points
So, McLaren's wait for the first elusive Q3 berth of their Honda reunion goes on. Singapore's Marina Bay, with all its 90-degree twists and turns, was never going to prove the bloodbath of Spa and Monza for the under-pressure and underpowered partnership - particularly as they had taken the tactical penalty hit to stock themselves with plenty of new power unit components - but 12th and 15th places on the grid still show the progress that needs to be made on both chassis and engine side.
Still, in a season of scant few positives, Fernando Alonso's place up on the sixth row represents their second-best starting slot of the year and McLaren will certainly take encouragement from splitting the Force India cars, which have hoovered up points as consistently as any recently. Alonso may have been a consistent presence in the bottom half of the top-10 during practice, but McLaren have often looked a little better in the early stages of a weekend than qualifying ultimately shows the MP4-30 to be.
From 12th on the grid, you'd certainly back a driver of the Spaniard's experience and calibre to work his way into the points, particularly as the 61-lap night race, in the unrelenting heat and humidity of Singapore, is probably right up there with Malaysia as the physically toughest of the year. Button too, from 15th, should also at least avoid the perils of the omnipresent barriers. Certainly if Marina Bay does represent McLaren's best chance of adding to their meagre 17 points over the final flyaway rounds, then both of the former world champions will be extra-determined to take any chances that come their way.
