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The limelight at last weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix was dominated by McLaren nabbing the Constructors Championship, with six races still to go in the season, and the kingdom celebrated the Bahrain-owned team’s win with landmarks lit up in orange, writes Naman Arora.
However, the Marina Bay Street Circuit also offered a wealth of subplots worth a closer look, that may not have grabbed the headlines but could nevertheless play a big role in the remaining leg of this season and beyond.
Veteran Sparks
First off, Fernando Alonso’s weekend in Singapore was pure theatre. From his radio barbs about Lewis Hamilton’s defensive moves to his sharp criticism of race control, the Aston Martin driver managed to make seventh place feel like a victory and a controversy rolled into one. Post-race penalties for Hamilton, where he dropped to eighth due to a five-second penalty, turned the result into what some fans dubbed a ‘ghost battle’ for seventh, a fight that was as psychological as it was statistical.
Beneath the noise, Alonso’s form was quietly superb, and fans agreed, voting for him as the Driver of the Day.
“It was one of our strongest weekends this year,” he said, pointing to Aston Martin’s steady gains in race pace. The result might not have made headlines, but it reaffirmed that even in his forties, Alonso remains a sharp competitor on the grid and a colourful voice on the team radio.
Papaya Tension
McLaren’s garage was a study in contrasts: champagne smiles outside, clipped radio exchanges within.
The team’s party mood masked a delicate internal moment after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made contact on the opening lap and the way the team handled the aftermath reopened old grievances for Piastri. He made his anger plain on the radio, saying in so many words that being forced aside by a team-mate was unacceptable: “If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate that’s a pretty (bad) job of avoiding.”
The management have long pointed to a ‘let them race’ approach, but team principal Andrea Stella was blunt about the need to process the event properly: “Our review needs to be very detailed, and very analytical.”
Chief executive Zak Brown has likewise urged openness, urging parties to ‘take the air out of the balloon right away if we feel like anything’s bubbling up.’
The constructors’ title might cushion any bruises, but as Piastri’s confidence grows, Singapore could be remembered as the moment McLaren’s biggest challenge stopped being Red Bull, and started being the racing heavyweights within the team locking horns.
Wasted Pace
Yuki Tsunoda’s weekend summed up the Red Bulls’ season: blistering speed undone by moments of chaos. A sluggish getaway at the start dropped him from eighth to fifteenth, and though he fought back with trademark aggression, the damage was done.
His opening lap was terrible. “The worst one I have ever had,” he claimed.
He meandered into the middle lane for Turn 1, and ended up stuck through Turn 3, losing several places in the process.
What’s frustrating is that the pace that followed, he said, is ‘the best that I have had’ since joining the team.
“I have to find the reason why I’m lacking on pace, or tyre preparation or grip feeling on one lap,” he explained. “I’ve had that since the previous race. Definitely something I have to figure it out.
“It’s a shame as the long run now is really, really good. Like completely the opposite situation compared to before Azerbaijan. And now the one lap pace is struggling a little bit. I just have to put it all together now... it will come together.”
With the 2026 seat shuffle approaching, every lost point matters. Singapore might have been a missed opportunity, but it also showed the maturity of a driver who no longer needs to prove his speed... only his consistency.
Rookie Power
While the veterans battled and the frontrunners celebrated, two newcomers stunned insiders for all the right reasons. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto both delivered drives that hinted at long-term promise.
Antonelli, fresh off a string of solid finishes, showed composure well beyond his years, impressing team engineers and his boss Toto Wolff with his car he was able to push the car. Antonelli described his fifth place as merely “OK” in private assessment, and while his execution wasn’t quite there, what really impressed was his pace. During Friday practice he was stronger than eventual race-winning team-mate Russell, adapting well to the track surface that provided a high level of trip but that was easy to suffer from sliding on.
Over in the Alpine camp, Colapinto, meanwhile, outqualified his teammate Pierre Gasly and kept the Alpine in the action for most of the evening, no small feat given the car’s limitations.
Yes, finishing 16th does not look good on paper, but the real race here is not for points, but a racing seat for the next season.
Alpine executive advisor and defacto tram boss Flavio Briatore recently confirmed that the team is choosing between Colapinto and reserve driver Paul Aron for the seat alongside Gasly next year, so this is a timely performance for the Argentinian.
In a sport obsessed with superstars, both the rookies reminded the paddock that the next wave of talent is here and adapting fast.
Heat Hazard
Singapore’s punishing humidity once again tested the limits of endurance, and this year, the FIA officially classified it as the sport’s first ‘Heat Hazard’ race. The governing body’s new protocols included expanded cooling zones and mandatory temperature monitoring, while teams tested prototype cooling vests for the first time.
Not everyone was convinced and some of F1’s top stars including Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc are pushing the FIA to back down over making the cooling vests mandatory for next season, amid complaints that they are uncomfortable and pose bigger risks because when they stop work drivers risk getting even hotter. With cockpit temperatures reportedly exceeding 55 Celsius, the debate underscored the fine line between resilience and risk.
While the FIA is open to discussing the next steps for the cooling vests and does not want to get into a situation where it is forcing them on drivers, it is not going to give up on the idea and has reiterated that the technology is here to stay.
All in all, beneath the glamour of McLaren’s triumph, the sport’s veterans, rookies, and rule-makers all faced their own moments of truth last weekend, and a different set of challenges await as the final quarter of the season approaches.
The next race will take place in the US on October 19.
