The longest, hottest but most fascinating weekend is going underway next week just above the Equator line in Singapore. With scorching temperatures and severe levels of humidity, the first round of the second Asian series of races always demands extra commitment to teams, drivers and cars: winning round there isn’t just a matter of speed because of all the factors involved, nevertheless probably the highest chance of Safety Car deployed of the entire calendar.

Ferrari is leaving Europe pumped to have won the last two rounds but more importantly to have clinched Red Bull with the same amount of first prizes; the Cavallino is forwarding both cars with a development in both front and rear wing, trying to recover partially the famous lack of downforce suffered for the season so far, with only the ‘outwash’ effect to remain for keeping the airflow outside the tyres. Even the rear diffuser is said to change around the rear axle.

The Milton Keynes’s team, on the other side of the Mercedes opponents, is betting all their fiches on the Spec-4 Honda engine release: with clear problems at Spa and Monza, now Verstappen and Albon can compete with similar PU performances against Maranello and the Silver Arrows. Moreover, in a high downforce track the famous aerodynamics of Adrian Newey can give in his drivers’ hands a solid ambition to another podium finish. Finally, Marina Bay will show the first real comparison between ‘Mad Max’ and the newly acquired Thai driver.

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As other teams as Toro Rosso are announcing new packages for Singapore, one of the mid field teams that showed good confidence with high speed compounds was surely Racing Point; and from the words of Team principal Otmar Szafnauer there’s the evidence of what these squads are focusing on, while 2020 is right behind the corner:

“We’ve made some significant progress over the last couple of months and the new direction we have taken with the updates since Germany is paying off. We will bring further elements of our new aero philosophy in Singapore before we shift all our resources to the 2020 car”.

Haas F1 Team Statement on Rich Energy. pic.twitter.com/TG0SmfTkTU

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) September 9, 2019