2023 Singapore GP Betting Preview

The 2023 Singapore GP is next on the F1 calendar and it is usually an exciting race. James Punt tipped up Carlos Sainz to take pole at the Italian GP at 5.00 and he has an in depth preview of this weekend’s big race. Check it out below.

2023 Singapore GP Preview

This will be the fourteenth Singapore GP and it was the first ever floodlit grand Prix. It has established itself as the modern day Monaco and this where the big money comes to enjoy the race and do sponsorship deals.

As a racetrack, it does the job. It is suitably harsh in terms of punishing mistakes, it is hard to overtake and the retirement/safety car rates are high. Of the seven races since the start of the turbo hybrid era, the driver starting on pole has won four and the DNF rate shows an average of 4.28.

Red Bull’s utter domination of the 2023 season continues. Fourteen consecutive wins for the team and ten in a row for Max Verstappen.

They haven’t quite dominated qualifying in the same way, racking up ‘just’ eleven fastest qualifier results. Is there any chance of anyone other than a Red Bull driver getting pole position, or even winning the race? Red Bull think so.

Challenge For Red Bull?

Max Verstappen believes that this will be their most challenging race to win. It wasn’t plain sailing at Monza and that track was not so difficult for them. I would add that this track is nothing like Monza and that race is a poor guide for this weekend.

Last year, after a two year absence from the calendar, we had Charles Leclerc getting pole position from Mr. Street Track, Sergio Perez. It was Perez who went on to win the race. It was a chaotic affair, starting on a wet track and with its usual safety car/virtual safety car deployments.

The threat to Red Bull is down to the high downforce nature of the track which does improve other’s chances of getting pole position. On a street track, the pole driver does have an advantage that may be greater than on a ‘normal’ track, but it is no guarantee. Indeed, we have had just one pole sitter winning the race in the last four races here.

Race Stoppages

The chances of multiple race interruptions is the real threat at the 2023 Singapore GP. Red Bull have no control over when somebody is going to crash or break down, and if it happens at the wrong time for them, it can turn the race upside down.

It is not a coincidence that Singapore was the venue for ‘Crashgate’. Renault’s Nelson Piquet jr crashed on lap 14, just after teammate Alonso had pitted (the only driver to do so). The result was to move Alonso up the order and eventually win the race.

That turned out to be far from an accident, but a planned move by the Renault team, but ‘real accidents’ can have the same ability to change the running order.

Flexi-wing Clampdown

A new FIA technical directive comes into effect this weekend after they suspected some teams may have found a loophole in the rules designed to prevent parts of the cars (not just the wings) flexing to improve aero dynamic performance.

For anyone thinking that this has been Red Bull’s secret weapon, be prepared to be disappointed. Even their rivals do not expect them to be affected. Fingers are pointing at Aston Martin.

The teams knew the directive was coming and any changes needed to comply will have already been put on the car in recent races. Aston Martin have dropped their form so they must have been at it, is the common logic.

Williams say they might have to tweak their floor a little but nothing of any great consequence. McLaren think it is good news, so they are not sweating on any new tests. Ditto Red Bull.

The 2023 Singapore GP Track

The first thing to point out is that this year’s track layout is different. Due to construction work, the sequence of four 90-degree corners which led the track under a grandstand has been removed for this year’s race.

Instead, we have a straight which will effectively give the tyres a bit of cooling time at the end of the lap. Traditionally, the tyres were just about giving up by this stage in qualifying.

Fewer corners, replaced by a short straight, will make the lap shorter and faster, but fundamentally, the track remains a high downforce track which is hard on tyres, cars and drivers.

The conditions are tough with high temperatures combined with very high humidity. Drivers will lose around 3kg in weight during what has traditionally been the longest race (by time) on the calendar. No doubt they will welcome a slightly shorter period in the car come Sunday.

Rain A Threat

Rain is an ever present threat. The race’s start time is after the afternoon downpours have passed but starting on a wet track has happened twice in recent years. A wet, bumpy, street track under floodlights does tend to result in accidents and safety cars, lots of safety cars.

Like many street tracks, there are a lot of near 90 degree corners and in that respect, Singapore is not unlike a slower Baku, or a faster Monaco. The other two high downforce tracks are the Hungaroring and Zandvoort. While they are not street circuits, they are a reasonable guide as to who should go well here.

Bad News

The bad news for the other divers is that Red Bull won in Baku (with Perez), won in Monaco (Verstappen), won in Hungary and at Zandvoort (both Verstappen).

Charles Leclerc did get pole position in Baku and Lewis Hamilton was the fastest qualifier in Hungary. It was very close in Monaco and we should expect a close run affair in Saturday’s qualifying session.

This is a track that produces a very powerful undercut. A chasing driver pitting first can make up a place and that might suit Ferrari. Whether they would need an extra pitstop is another question, however.

Driver Records

As at most tracks, the driver with the best record is Lewis Hamilton with three wins since 2014, but he didn’t have it all his own way and he was a bit lucky in 2017 when three of the first four on the grid crashed at the first corner, leaving the race at his mercy.

Sergio Perez won last year and the street track specialist has been a reasonably steady performer here. Max Verstappen has yet to win in Singapore and he will be looking to put that right.

Charles Leclerc has finished second in the last two races here and was on pole on both occasions. The Ferrari is hard to call but they performed well over one lap in Baku and they have gone well here in the past with Vettel winning twice for Ferrari. Lando Norris has only raced twice here but finished seventh in 2019 and was fourth last year.

2023 Singapore GP: Team-by-Team

Red Bull

It might be hard work in qualifying, but their car remains the one to beat. However, If Verstappen has to start from anywhere other than pole, he is going to find it more difficult than usual to win. The car’s aerodynamic efficiency will not be as well rewarded here as on most tracks.

And there is the chance of just pure bad luck raining on his parade. Sergio Perez is now forty nine points clear of Alonso in the battle for second place in the drivers’ championship.

Perez has a very good record on street circuits and did us a favour by winning in Baku. He has to be considered on the streets, but will his confidence have taken a knock after the disaster that was Monaco? Certainly, his consistently poor qualifying performances make him hard to fancy.

Mercedes

Only one podium finish from the last six races this season. Their car is still a poor qualifier and you want to be as far up the grid as possible here. The high temperature should help them and they go well in high downforce set ups.

Their better race pace might not pay the kind of dividends that it usually does if they are starting from their usual sixth to eighth places on the grid. That said, I expect Hamilton to go well this weekend but he’ll need to do well on Saturday if he is to be in with a podium chance.

Ferrari

Enjoyed a strong home race and have picked up two podiums from the last three races. They have good qualifying car and a start from pole would be no surprise, but this track can be hard on tyres, and so is the Ferrari which bodes ill for the race.

Ferrari do have a history of going well here but they are very hard to pin down this season. However, their race pace makes it difficult to consider them for a podium.

Aston Martin

Just about hanging onto Ferrari in third place. The gap is now eleven points but it is asking a lot of Alonso to carry the team virtually single handedly.

Stroll has picked up just three points from the last five races. Alonso has had great results on the high downforce tracks this season, finishing fourth in Baku, second in Monaco and fourth at Zandvoort. Only Hungary saw a relatively poor race, finishing ninth.

He is second only to Verstappen on the high downforce tracks this season and he does tend to thrive in chaotic races, of which this one tends to be. The biggest negative for him is the new technical directive on flexi-wings. If Aston Martin have been at it, we could see a dip in the car’s performance.

McLaren

Lando Norris has been at pains to say how poor his car is in slow corners. Results cast some doubt as to whether he is being entirely truthful. Even before their big update in Austria, they had both cars into Q3 at Baku and tenth and eleventh in Monaco.

Since the update, they qualified third and fourth in Hungary, finishing second and fifth, and at Zandvoort they qualified second. On paper, the track shouldn’t be a great one for them, but it would be no great surprise to see a decent haul of points.

Piastri is making his track debut. A double points finish is doable, but a top 6 might be asking too much.

Alpine

A podium finish or a double DNF, take your pick. Ferrari are hard to predict, Alpine are impossible. That they scored a podium finish in Monaco and at Zandvoort, suggests that they will enjoy the high downforce set up, but it is hard to be in anyway confident about how they will go anywhere.

Gasly has expressed disappointment that there will be fewer corners as their car is lacking competitiveness on the straights.

Williams

They have been on a roll in the last two races, picking up ten points and putting clear air between themselves and Haas in the constructor’s championship table.

Alex Albon drove a valiant race at Monza but came up one place short of the top 6 needed to land our bet there. Albon expects this track to be a very tough venue for them and he is realistically waiting for Las Vegas for his next big chance for serious points.

That said, he wasn’t miles away on the other high downforce tracks and finished eighth in Zandvoort. They have improved their high downforce performances and with a bit of luck, he might nick a point or two.

Haas

Having not scored a point since the fifth race of the season it is hard to make any case for their chances this weekend. A rain affected qualifying might flatter them, but their race pace is just not good enough.

They have struggled at all the high downforce tracks this season and they could be looking at last place here. They are still hoping for more new parts to make some difference late in the season but they are likely to be introduced at the USGP.

Alfa Romeo

Bottas’ solitary point in Italy moves Alfa Romeo within one point of Haas in the constructor’s table. It was the only point scored by either team in the last six races.

Alfa Romeo got both cars into Q3 in Hungary but they messed up the start and failed to convert that into points. That was a surprising performance and it’s hard to say if they could repeat it here. A high attrition race may offer them hope of getting something out of the race.

Alpha Tauri

It has been a poor season for the Red Bull B team. Tsunoda is onto his third teammate of the season and Liam Lawson will still be in place for this race. That is a shame for the team as this has been a good track for the injured Ricciardo.

Tsunoda made Q3 in Baku and Monaco, the only two times he has done it in 2023. He had been going a bit better since the arrival of Ricciardo and there are no really strong arguments to say that he is a points contender this weekend, but he is worth keeping an eye on.

Lawson missed out on a points finish in Monza by one place but this will be a new venue for him to get to grips with.

2023 Singapore GP Weather Forecast

It is in the nature of the weather here to produce thunderstorms on a daily basis, but they usually brew up during the heat of the day and will have finished by the start of the race/qualifying.

Sunday is forecast to be a little cooler than Friday and Saturday. Qualifying starts at 9pm local time and the race 8pm. On Sunday the chance of rain was 73% but that has dropped to 40%.

Late afternoon thunderstorms may mean another damp start or more likely these days, a delayed start behind the safety car. The bottom line is that despite the climate here, the timing of the race usually means we get a dry race, but a wet – drying track is not unheard of.

2023 Singapore GP: Ante Post Selections

The ante post betting has not gone well on the whole and I will be holding fire until the qualifying and raceday updates for the bulk of any bets this weekend.

The only bet I’m making now is on Alonso to finish on the podium. High down force tracks have resulted in two second places, a fourth and a ninth for Alonso.

His record here in the turbo hybrid era is not good, but he never had a competitive car, which he does now. The flexi-wing technical directive is a concern but we can’t be sure who is going to be affected, if any, or by how much.

2023 Singapore GP Tip: 1 point Fernando Alonso to finish on the podium @ 3.60 with Unibet

-JamesPunt