Mick Schumacher drives Singapore’s difficult Marina Bay Circuit for the first time. The German has more questions than most of his opponents, but they are having a hard time too.
Mick Schumacher has a difficult task ahead of him: the 2020 Formula 2 champion is driving for the first time on Singapore’s demanding street circuit at Marina Bay.
Not only that the Haas driver, who is still without a Formula 1 contract for next year, has to learn the best line through the 23 curves. He also faces puzzles that even long-time Formula 1 drivers sometimes despair of.
This track is always dirty on the right in the first practice session, which used to lead to some drivers starting practice quite late – they didn’t want to play vacuum cleaners for the opponents. Schumacher cannot afford such a thing. He needs every lap to familiarize himself with the intricacies of the undulating track.
Experience from previous years says: The first training session here is always much slower than the second, and the grip of the track changes constantly. Such an effect can also be observed in Monaco, for example – the track is developing rapidly, which means for drivers and technicians that they have to guess what degree of grip will be available on Saturday when it comes to setting up.
The next problem: precipitation in Singapore often comes down as heavy rain, and that can wash the track so that the fine rubber surface is washed away once more.
Two other factors that the Formula 1 aces have to consider: they have never driven here with these 2022 wing cars on low-profile tires, “all the experience is gone, it’s as if the teams were getting to know a new track,” says Pirelli -Racing boss Mario Isola. And the track has been freshly paved since the last Singapore GP in 2019. That also changes the specifications.
Last but not least, the fact that the first training session takes place at dusk and the second session at night also plays a role in the sensitive interaction between racing car, tires and track.
Mick Schumacher and his colleagues are faced with a real brain teaser.
The best way to follow how well Mick performs when it matters most, i.e. in qualifying and the race, is with the popular live ticker on SPEEDWEEK.com. Of course, we have also summarized the most important dates of the television stations for you.
The Singapore GP on TV
Friday, September 30th
06.00: Sky Sport F1 – Dutch GP 2022
08.00: Sky Sport F1 – Top 10 Onboards: GP Italien 2022
08.15: Sky Sport F1 – GP Singapur 2013
10.45: Sky Sport F1 – Warm-Up
11.05: Sky Sport F1 – Drivers’ press conference
11.45: Sky Sport F1 – Start reporting First Practice
11.50 a.m.: ORF 1 – Start of reporting on the first training session
12.00: First practice
14.30: Sky Sport F1 – Top 10 Onboards: GP Italien 2022
14.45: Sky Sport F1 – Start coverage Second Practice
2.50 p.m.: ORF 1 – Start of reporting on the second training session
15.00: Second practice
17.30: Sky Sport F1 – GP Confidential
19.00: Sky Sport F1 – First Free Practice Replay
20.30: Sky Sport F1 – Second Free Practice Replay
23.00: Sky Sport F1 – First Free Practice Replay
Saturday October 1st
06.30: Sky Sport F1 – First Free Practice Replay
08.00: Sky Sport F1 – Second Free Practice Replay
09.30: Sky Sport F1 – Team Principals press conference
10.30: Sky Sport F1 – F1: Daniel Ricciardos NASCAR Run
11.25: Sky Sport F1 – Warm-Up
11.45 Sky Sport F1 – Start reporting third practice session
11.50 a.m.: ORF 1 – Start of reporting on the third training session
12.00: Third practice session
1.30 p.m.: Sky Sport F1 – The 2021 season
14.30: Sky Sport F1 – Start of Qualifying coverage
14.45: ORF 1 – Formel-1-News
2.55 p.m.: ORF 1 – Start of qualifying reporting
2.55 p.m.: SRF Info – Start of qualifying coverage
15.00: Qualifying
16.30: Sky Sport F1 – Press conference following qualifying
17.00: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Wiederholung
19.00: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying kompakt
19.15: Sky Sport F1 – Top 10 Onboards: GP Niederlande 2022
19.30: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Kompakt
20.00: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Wiederholung
21.30: Sky Sport F1 – Formula 1 legends: Gerhard Berger
22.30: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Wiederholung
Sunday October 2nd
06.30: Sky Sport F1 – Formula 1 legends: Niki Lauda
07.30: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Wiederholung
09.00: Sky Sport F1 – Box Box Box: Red Bull Racing’s first win
09.30: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Kompakt
10.15: Sky Sport F1 – Qualifying Kompakt
10.30: Sky Sport F1 – F1: Team Haas NASCAR
11.30: Sky Sport F1 – Radio Rewind – GP Belgien 2022
12.00: Sky Sport F1 – Radio Rewind – GP Italien 2022
12.30: Sky Sport F1 – Pre-race reports
12.40: ORF 1 – Formel-1-News
1.20 p.m.: SRF 2 – Start of coverage of the race
1.25 p.m.: ORF 1 – Start of coverage of the race
14.00: Singapore Grand Prix
15.45: Sky Sport F1 – Analysis and Interviews
16.20: ORF 1 – Motorhome
16h30: Sky Sport F1 – Post-Race Press Conference
17.00: Sky Sport F1 – Ted’s Notebook
17.30: Sky Sport F1 – Race Replay
19.30: Sky Sport F1 – Ted’s Notebook
20.30: Sky Sport F1 – race compact
20.30: Sky Sport F1 – Radio Rewind: GP Italien 2022
21.00: Sky Sport F1 – Race Replay