Singapore Grand Prix preview by James
Last season’s race winner Sebastian Vettel will look defend his crown at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix this weekend.
Coming into this season’s encounter, the Vettel lies 53 points clear of Fernando Alonso in the driver’s championship with just 7 races remaining. The German looks to have a firm grip on the title and it’s hard to see how the rest of the field can catch-up at this point.
Looking at the race results in Singapore since its return to Formula 1 in 2008 shows us that the top two in the standings this season have also had the best record at this track. Vettel has won on each of the last two occasions, though Alonso has also two victories to his name – 2008 and 2010. Alonso has finished 5th and 3rd respectively in Singapore in 2011 and 2012, suggesting that he is consistently in the shake-up on this track, but the I’m just not convinced he has a car that can truly compete with Vettel’s Red Bull this season. Alonso’s Ferrari has performed well in race action but has not been able to match the Red Bulls in qualifying and I worry that this may be an issue again in Singapore.
Of the other contenders here, the two Mercedes drivers stand-out. Upgrades to Mercedes’ car should give Hamilton and Rosberg the platform to make a late-season push and given Hamilton’s good track record in Singapore, I expect a podium finish from him this weekend.
The big news off the track in the Formula 1 world this week surrounds a number of drivers moving teams ahead of next season, most notably Kimi Raikkonen. It was announced Wednesday that Raikkonen will be moving to Ferrari next season, where he will replace Felipe Massa. This lead to inevitable debate as to whether Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso will be Ferrari’s de facto ‘number one’ driver next year but Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was quick to quash any potential conflict, claiming that the combination of the two former world champions was “the best one could have today in Formula 1”. We’ll find out next year I guess!
In the meantime, I expect Sebastian Vettel to continue his dominance this weekend but a small buy of Alonso at 29 on the race index might return a little bit of value. Speaking of Raikkonen, this track is very much suited to the Lotus cars and I think we can expect to see an improved performance from both of their drivers here. I like a buy of Raikkonen’s race index at 21 and also a small buy of Grosjean at 14. It promises to be another fascinating weekend, and hopefully the chasing pack can gain some ground on Vettel to set-up the kind of tight finish to the season, we’d all love to see.
ADVICE
BUY Alonso on Race Index at 29
BUY Raikkinen on Race Index at 21
SMALL BUY Grosjean at 14
- Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.