To anyone the headline hasn’t already driven away: welcome. Welcome, and hear this column out before you leave.
Claiming any race on the Formula One calendar parallels the significance of Monte Carlo without your next words being ‘but Monza’ is motorsport sacrilege, but in the streets of Marina Bay we might yet have our Beelzebub.
First the defence.
The Monaco Grand Prix is a race of supreme heritage bettered only by the Italian Grand Prix. The streets of Monte Carlo, in a configuration remarkably similar to the one used today, hosted a championship round in Formula One’s inaugural season and hasn’t missed a year since 1955.
For this reason the circuit is inextricably linked with Formula One history. It has borne witness to some of the sport’s most astonishing feats and has become synonymous with some its premier drivers, not least of whom are Ayrton Senna.
‘Formula One’ and ‘Monte Carlo’ fit together as naturally as ‘Monaco’ and ‘Grand Prix’. On display is not only sublime driving talent but also a projection of the sport’s image of choice – glitz and glamour, wealth and fame, challenge and reward.
“This isn’t just motor racing,” Monaco shouts to the world. “This is *Formula One*.”
Indeed one need go only so far as four months back to read this very column’s consideration of why Monaco, despite the inevitability of the twisty circuit delivering boring racing, showcases Formula One like no other venue.
Or does it?
Enter Singapore.
Marina Bay mounts a comprehensive argument for the crown of motorsport’s best street circuit.
A racing lap around the historic Monte Carlo is like threading a needle 19 times at 170 kilometres per hour; a lap around Marina bay is much the same, but you’re forced to do it 23 times at night while covered in sweat.
The suffocating tropical climes of Singapore make this grand prix the sternest test on the calendar. It’s a combination of the inescapable heat of Bahrain, the claustrophobic humidity of Malaysia and the daring layout of Monaco rolled into one impossible race.
The unrelenting bumps intrude into the cockpit, daring you to lose concentration. The brake pedal gets longer, demanding more and more energy when your legs have only less and less to give. There’s little time between corners to mentally relax. The only consolation is that you’re an astounding three kilograms lighter when the time comes to extricate yourself from your car.
Last year’s fastest lap was an excruciating one minute 50.041 seconds – the second-longest circulation of the season – and after 68 laps that take the race perilously close to the maximum two-hour mark there are few words to adequately describe the experience.
Even the machinery is punished at Marina Bay. Brakes are consumed more quickly, fuel is tricky to manage, and the power units are in a state of thermal duress – and that’s before considering the power lines running beneath the bridge between turns 12 and 13 that can wreak havoc with a car’s electrics.
Given the Herculean racing task it’s little wonder only Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Sebastian Vettel have been able to secure victory in the Lion City.
A racing challenge? Check – and the race is equally impressive off-track.
Formula One is big business – between now and next year the sport’s commercial rights are changing hands to the tune of $8 billion – meaning there’s no shortage of the high-flyers that descend upon the Monaco harbour each May.
And while that harbour sets the Monaco Grand Prix along the stunning Côte d’Azur, the glittering neon towers of the Singapore skyline still pack a punch.
History? It’s perhaps Singapore’s one weakness, but it isn’t for a lack of trying.
Before even mentioning the momentous ‘crashgate’ scandal of 2008–09 Singapore can lay claim to hosting the first race after the European leg, earning itself the chance to set up the title fight to the finish. In 2016 Marina Bay will set the tone for the final seven races with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg separated by just two points.
The Singapore Grand Prix has fast established itself as a mainstay of the Formula One calendar. Its uniquely challenging layout triggers good racing for a street circuit, and its world class setting makes it an undeniably attractive grand prix.
Does that make it better than Monaco?
You decide. But the case is compelling.
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