Our 2026 Singapore GP predictions

Matt Gallagher (0:05)

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. Singapore Sprint, something we have never experienced before, and I can promise you, we will never experience again. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tom Bellingham (0:25)

Until we see Monaco, and it'll be even worse.

Matt Gallagher (0:28)

Yeah, but here, I think they'll do it once and go, why did we do that? That was very silly of us. But hey, maybe we're going to be completely and utterly surprised. Predictions are going to be off the rails, off the charts, off the walls. I don't know what it is, but Tommy, how are you?

Tom Bellingham (0:44)

Very good. Looking forward to predictions as always. It's a season that keeps changing, despite the fact that we've got a runaway championship leader. The pecking order seems to change between a lot of different teams every week.

Like you say, while someone's running away with it, I don't think it really tells the whole picture of how difficult it's been recently, as you well know.

Matt Gallagher (1:08)

Absolutely. Now, let's get into a bit of news. There's not been many days since the last race, so not a huge amount, but one big thing is that there are question marks, quite confident question marks, if you can say it like that, that George Russell, after his power unit issues in Malaysia, may well have to start at the back of the grid for Singapore.

Ouch! That's going to be painful for George. If that does come true, I think as of recording right now, it's like a maybe, but I would imagine considering he was already going to take a power unit change, having this additional issue would mean that you'd have to. But let's see on that one. But I can imagine he doesn't want to, but it's whether he has any of his allocation able to be used at Singapore.

Tom Bellingham (1:55)

Yes, very much seems like it could be on the cards. There's also been talk that he might have a double penalty because of the way Mercedes are bringing new engine specifications into Austin, that he might also have another one there as well. So we might actually see George Russell starting at the back in the next two races, which is very, very unfortunate.

Matt Gallagher (2:24)

Yes, it's never been more over, I think, for George Russell's championship campaign after especially what happened in Malaysia. Now, the next thing to talk about is the fact that the Mercedes upgrade might have actually just downgraded them, nerfed them. Mercedes might have nerfed themselves from Malaysia.

I've read reports that Toto was basically expecting a three-tenth gain in Malaysia, and it turned out to be a half a second loss compared to the expectation, which is mad because it made them faster in certain areas, but slower, I think, in low speed and also down the straights, which is mad to think when they've brought an engine upgrade. But that's what happened in Malaysia. That's what brought everyone else back into play. So the question mark now is what Mercedes is going to do in Singapore, which they've always, historically, it's been their one track that has been actually quite bad for them whenever they dominated.

Tom Bellingham (3:20)

Yes, Singapore seems that track where whoever dominates the season has a bit of a shocker there, doesn't it? You know, we had McLaren weren't particularly strong there last year. Max, of course, famously got knocked out in the season that he was dominating and got knocked out of qualifying that time. Mercedes, as you say, would come to this track and not in their truly dominant eras and this was the chance for everyone else to have a go. But yeah, Mercedes, it's very unusual that this upgrade, we're thinking, all right, it's never been more over. And maybe actually, you know, it is championship back on for Max, what's happened after all?

Joking.

Matt Gallagher (4:05)

I think he could still be at the championship fight, maybe from this race.

Tom Bellingham (4:09)

From literally the spring, probably. Yeah, so let's see.

Matt Gallagher (4:11)

But anyway, the final thing is that the FIA, unsurprisingly, are investigating the formation lap joke and hopefully we will get some kind of actual...

Tom Bellingham (4:20)

Did you see that fan footage, by the way, that was doing the rounds where someone could see it a bit better? And it is so weird because you can literally see the cars going to a certain point and it literally looks like when they pass an imaginary line, they just shut off.

Matt Gallagher (4:34)

Yeah, it's mad because Max, yeah, initially happens to Max and then it happens to everyone behind him. So it will be interesting to see what they actually decide to do moving forward.