FORMULA 1 - 2016

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Sebastien Buemi Interview

Ex-Toro Rosso F1 racer Sebastien Buemi talks about the potential future of Jenson Button and Felipe Massa in the WEC, plus his thoughts on the 2017 regulations after testing a mule car for Red Bull Racing recently.

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SERGIO PEREZ SAYS HE’S STAYING AT FORCE INDIA F1 BUT MCLAREN NIGHTMARE STILL HAUNTS HIM

Sergio Perez has said that he will stay at Force India next season, but cannot confirm it until all the details are finally signed off. Based on painful experience of thinking he had a new McLaren contract for 2014, only to find that he did not, Perez is not willing to tempt fate.

He had hoped to announce his plans this weekend, but more time is needed to finalise everything. Perez has also been speaking to Renault and Williams was also a possibility.

“It’s nice to have the situation I have with options on the table, but as a driver you would like to clear your mind of that,” Perez told NBC Sports in Singapore this afternoon. “It looks as if I’m going to stay.

“But because of my past experience with McLaren; everything was pretty much sorted then last minute there was a change. In F1 everything can change, but everything seems to be that I am going to stay for another year.”

Perez’ decisión to stay at Force India leaves Renault still looking for a name driver. Valtteri Bottas has been noticeably enigmatic this afternoon, saying that “it’s still not obviously confirmed if I will be with Williams or not” next season and adding that he is still negotiating.

Canadian teenager Lance Stroll is now considered a racing certainty for one Williams seat, but Bottas is coveted by Renault boss Fred Vasseur, with whom he won the GP3 championship. Vasseur and Toto Wolff are close friends and allies and Bottas’ career is managed by Wolff, so there are a number of synergies. But French colleagues say that Renault would have to pay a severance fee to Williams in order to release Bottas, which is considered unlikely. Romain Grosjean is locked in at Haas, so options for a name driver are rapidly running out for Renault.

That said, there was a toughness and edge to Bottas’ tone and body language on this topic today which suggests that he is trying to use Renault’s interest to boost his contract terms.

Although the points table says that Williams has 111 points to Force India’s 108, the real picture is slightly different. Since introducing its revised chassis in Spain, Force India has scored 100 points to Williams’ 61, so if they keep up that strike rate, they will finish 4th in the Constructor’s championship, ahead of the Grove team. It would be the best finish in the team’s history.

“It will be a huge thing for everyone, it would be amazing,” said Perez. “I look forward to being part of that history, I’m not too carried away with it at the moment, but I think it’s definitely possible, If we keep doing the same things to the end of the season we will be in a good position.”

The form book certainly looks positive for Force India going into the street circuit event at Singapore. In Monaco the team bagged 23 points, its largest single race haul of the season, while Perez was on the podium in the other street track, Baku. Williams has struggled on street tracks this season.

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VIRTUAL REALITY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME AS F1 LOOKS TO NEXT GENERATION

The change of Formula 1’s ownership to Liberty Media, provided it is completed as planned early next year, is likely to see a hastening down the road towards new technology as a way to connect with audiences around the world and monetize advanced media content – or ‘beyond broadcast’, as it is called in F1.

As well as looking at ways to monetize digital content, streaming and advanced media, one of the key directions of travel is Virtual Reality.

SKY see this as an important growth area and have made it one of the key elements of their new deal with F1, while technology companies around the sport continue to come up with new innovations to bring the fans closer to the sport through VR experiences.

One company which is exhibiting at the Sport Matters conference here in Singapore this week is Virtually Live. They have developed a VR platform in collaboration with Formula E targeted at fans unable to attend live events. The platform takes telemetry direct from the cars during the race and creates a VR rendering of the live race, enabling users to experience, through a VR head-set, the race from the perspective of their chosen driver or switch to any exterior view of the track, alongside the real-time embedded broadcast.

I tried it in Singapore on Thursday morning and it is the most advanced system of its kind that I’ve experienced; you navigate using a simple handset with a menu button to call up the point of view options and there is a trigger on the back to select. In play the handset creates a beam of light, which you point at whatever fresh point of view you want to take, so in a close battle you can move from car to car to experience the race in multiple ways.

The Spa battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen would have been fascinating to observe in this way and it takes little imagination to think of a plethora of applications for VR technology of this kind, which keeps getting smaller and more compact with each iteration.

This years’ F1 Connectivity Innovation Prize, F1’s tech based crowdsourcing challenge, has taken VR and AR as its basis and is seeking solutions to VR and AR challenges in the world of F1.

The winners of the second challenge were announced last week and they will travel to Austin next month, along with the winners of Challenge 1, to compete for the grand prize of US$50,000. Last year it was won by a JA on F1 reader Paul Clarke, from Australia and we are hoping that our readers who made the final will once again have success.

Challenge 2 was set by the Mercedes F1 team and entrants had to design a VR/AR solution, which allows engineers at the circuit and back at the team’s factory in the UK, to work better as an integrated virtual unit.

The winners, with their winning ideas, are:

Benjamin van Caspel (Australia)
Allowing remote F1 engineering teams to observe more, analyse deeper and act faster through an Augmented Reality (AR) interface. AR allows the interface to be a part of the environment and can utilise a user’s spatial awareness to communicate information more quickly.

Leire Apraiz Elcoroiribe & Marco Einöder (Spain)
By taking advantage of the image detection and immersion capabilities of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and wearable technologies, the solution enables an integrated and holistic view point of various factors during a Grand Prix.

Tom Blockley & Richard Howells (United Kingdom)
This solution offers improved collaboration within a mixed reality environment to extend the technology and communication within the core group of engineers by centralizing and streamlining operations, communicating all channels through an interactive Virtual Race Centre (VRC).

For more on the 2016 F1 Connectivity Innovation Challenge click here

 

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SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX: ROSBERG WINS A THRILLER TO LEAD TITLE RACE AGAIN

Nico Rosberg triumphed in his 200th Formula 1 race, the Singapore Grand Prix, after a thrilling end to the race which saw Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo scythe the Mercedes driver’s 20 second lead to less than half a second as the pair crossed the finish line.

The victory sees Rosberg go top of the 2016 Formula 1 world championship points table once again, with an eight points lead. He previously led the standings until the British Grand Prix in July.

For most of the night, on the streets of Marina Bay, Rosberg had matters well in control despite some issues with his brakes which required constant management by the German.

But late on in the race Red Bull gambled bravely by switching Ricciardo – who was around five seconds adrift of the leader at that point – to supersofts. Rosberg’s crew held firm on older soft tyres – the hitherto mundane race was suddenly alive.

What transpired thereafter was a relentless chase by Ricciardo, slashing the lead by two seconds per lap – the gamble almost paid dividends.

But at the same time, it must be said, that Rosberg kept his cool despite the obvious pressure and timed the finish perfectly.

Rosberg said afterwards, “It’s been an awesome weekend in Singapore for me. Of course Daniel tried to pull one on me at the end but we managed to hold him off, I’m really, really happy.”

“I couldn’t come in at the same time as Daniel because I was in traffic. The whole car was on the edge, it always is in Singapore. It’s all the more satisfying with a race like that,” added the winner.

Ricciardo, who gets our ‘Man of the Match’ award said, “We have come close on numerous occasions but I am not disappointed. We gave it a shot, we got with half a second. It was close. As soon as did a pit stop we thought Nico would come in. I pushed hard on the tyres.”

Behind the top two, was another intriguing battle – this one involving Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

On lap 46 (of 61) Raikkonen was ahead of Hamilton thanks to a great on track overtake, at which point Mercedes called their man in for a stop and change to Pirelli supersofts. The panic in the Ferrari pit was palpable.

They decided to call Mercedes’ bluff and a lap later had Raikkonen pit for ultrasofts. They had fallen for a sucker punch which saw Hamilton reclaim third place where he stayed to the end of the race.

Raikkonen had to settle for fourth. Ferrari turned a near certain podium finish into fourth place – another blunder in a long catalogue of pit wall gaffes this season by the Reds.

Hamilton summed up, “Definitely not [a great weekend] but firstly big congratulations to Nico – he drove fantastically all weekend. It has been a tricky one for me but I’m just happy to get on the podium and get some points for the team.”

Ferrari Sebastian Vettel turned last place on the grid into fifth place by the time the chequered flag waved to end the race, delivering a well calculated and slick performance as he picked off his rivals in his race through the field.

Sixth place went to Max Verstappen who botched his start and thereafter was playing catch up all day.

It was a positive evening for McLaren as Fernando Alonso made a bullet start and spent much of the race in fifth place, before settling for seventh ahead of Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso who was ninth despite being involved in a start melee which also involved his teammate Carlos Sainz, and resulted in Nico Hulkenberg crashing into the wall and prompting a safety car with less than 100 metres of the race being run.

The final point went to Kevin Magnussen in the Renault.

Race Report

The race got off to a dramatic start as a hard charging Hulkenberg powered forward from eighth on the grid. Toro Rosso’s Sainz was also trying to get ahead, however, and as the Spaniard moved across the pair collided. Hulkenberg was pitched into the pit wall. With his Force India heavily damaged and with debris strewn across the track the Safety Car was swiftly deployed, neutralizing the race.

At the front, pole position man Rosberg had made a good start and held the lead ahead of Ricciardo who had also made a good getaway. Behind them, Hamilton held third place.

However, fourth-on-the-grid Verstappen in the second Red Bull made a poor start and dropped back to eight place under the safety car. The Dutch teenager would spend the rest of the race toiling on the fringes of the top 10, mostly with Toro Rosso’s Kvyat, before hauling himself up to P6 in the final third of the race.

When the safety car left the track Rosberg began to cement himself into the lead and by the time of the first round of stops, the German was seven seconds ahead of the Australian, Hamilton a further four seconds back.

At the rear of the field Ferrari’s Vettel, who had started in P22 due to a mechanical issue in qualifying, was already up to P10 as he passed slower cars and his soft tyres allowed him to stay out longer than rivals.

For the drivers at the front the second stint saw Mercedes losed some ground as Ricciardo, on a second set of supersofts reduced Rosberg’s advantage to less than three seconds.

Hamilton, struggling with brake issues, was chased down by Ferrari’s Raikkonen and on lap 34 the Finn muscled his way past to claim P3 just before they made their second stop

Vettel, meanwhile, was continuing to scythe through the order and by the time of his second stop he was sixth.

As the final third of the race approached Hamilton made a last roll of the dice, making a third tyre stop on lap 45 for ultrasoft tyres.

Fearing that Raikkonen might be overahauled in the final laps if he stayed out on old tyres, Ferrari reacted. The stop was not smooth, however, and the Finn emerged behind the champion, leading him to question the mechanics of the stop.

At the front Rosberg was looking secure, but on lap 47 Red Bull too gambled. With the gap back to Hamilton now more than safe thanks to his stop, Ricciardo pitted for supersoft tyres.

The Australian emerged some 27 seconds behind Rosberg and after briefly considering a reactive stop, Mercedes opted to leave Rosberg out on track.

Across 14 intensely exciting laps Ricciardo almost succeeded. Within five laps he had taken more than 10 seconds out of Rosberg’s advantage and the seconds continued to fall away.

He continued to press and by the final sector of the final lap he was inside DRS range as he and Rosberg hit traffic. The German held his nerve, however, and he kept Ricciardo at bay to cross the line just 0.488s ahead of the Red Bull.

With Hamilton third ahead of Raikkonen, Vettel’s superb driver from P22 led to a deserved fifth place. Verstappen passed McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in the final third to take sixth place and behind the Spaniard Sergio Perez was eighth for Force India. The final points positions were taken by Kvyat and Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.

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CAREY MEETS F1 TEAM CHIEFS WITHOUT ECCLESTONE

Liberty Media’s man in charge of the organisation’s Formula 1 investment has had meet and greet session wwith the major players in the Formula paddock this weekend in Singapore, and at several of these he was not accompanied by F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.

When asked what Liberty Media’s plans are for Formula 1, the sport’s incoming executive chairman answered: “No more Liberty Media.”

“It will be Formula One,” Carey told Bild am Sonntag in Singapore.

Behind the engine noise at the glitzy night race, Carey has been meeting with F1 teams. “It’s incredibly exciting to be here. It’s my first time in Formula 1.”

Bild am Sonntag reports that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was with Carey on Friday, but not on Saturday – when Carey met with team bosses, fuelling rumours that Ecclestone, 85, is on the verge of quitting.

The Briton’s old ally Max Mosley hinted at the potential development in an interview with Sky, and now Ecclestone confirms: “Max knows me very well.”

“If by chance things are going what I don’t think is the right way – I may well be wrong – then I will disappear for sure,” he warned.

According to Speed Week, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff confirmed that talks with Carey have been taking place in Singapore.

“I met him,” he said. “He brings a lot of experience from the US, you can feel that he is very interested in our sport and he said: I will ask you a lot of questions.”

“I like that – it’s the right attitude,” Wolff added.

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ARRIVABENE HELD IN CUSTODY FOR LITTERING IN SINGAPORE

Ferrari chief Maurizio Arrivabene spent hours in custody in Singapore after discarding a cigarette on the street, according to media reports.

The city-state’s stance on littering is famous, with stringent enforcement and harsh penalties in place for infractions.

According to ABC, a Spanish daily, Ferrari boss and former Marlboro chief Arrivabene was caught discarding a cigarette butt on a city street.

Also reported by the Marca daily as well as Finland’s MTV, it is claimed Arrivabene spent six hours in custody and had to pay a 1000 Singapore dollar fine (US $730).

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Mercedes says Hamilton and Rosberg's Singapore GP brake woes equal

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has revealed Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were as marginal on brakes as one another during Formula 1's Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton claims his own brake issues were his downfall during the race at the Marina Bay street circuit, and resulted in him watching race winner Rosberg and second-placed Daniel Ricciardo ease ahead over the opening stint.

The reigning champion could only manage third come the chequered flag and now falls eight points behind Rosberg in the drivers' standings with six races to run.

"It was my brakes. I was struggling with my brakes, they were way overheating, so I just had to slow down," said Hamilton.

"I just had to watch the other guys pull away, and I was just looking at different ways to try and get them back under control.

"Eventually once I did my second or third stop, all of a sudden my brakes were under control. But of course, towards the end I still got a bit of heat in them."

But Wolff said Rosberg and Hamilton were both in the same braking situation, which he put down to a strategic decision rather than a mechanical problem.

"We were very marginal, straight from the beginning," Wolff said.

"But this is the name of the game in Singapore, you try to optimise everything, and you could hear other drivers complaining about brakes overheating.

"Maybe we took it to a step where it caused a problem straight from the beginning.

"But we finished one and three, and I think the result justifies the strategy that was taken in terms of putting the car together."

Asked whether one driver's problems were worse than the other, Wolff replied: "No, they had exactly the same problem.

"At various times it was worse for one than the other, but it was the same thing."

After watching his 19-point lead evaporate over the last three races - all won by Rosberg - since the summer break, Hamilton insists he is not too concerned.

"It's a lot different to when I was here last year," said Hamilton, who emerged from the 2015 Singapore race with a 41-point lead over Rosberg despite retiring.

"But all in all, with everything that's gone on this year, I'm still in the fight, there's still a long way to go and I'm going to give it everything I've got."

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Fernando Alonso dreamed of first McLaren-Honda podium since 1992

Fernando Alonso says he briefly dreamed he would get the first McLaren-Honda podium of Formula 1's hybrid era when he leapt up the order at the Singapore Grand Prix start.

Smooth progress past the startline shunt involving Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr meant Alonso rose from ninth on the grid to fifth by the first corner.

"The start was very good, P5 in the first corner. At one moment I even hoped for a podium position if something happened in front of me," he said.

"I was on the outside because the first couple of metres were good, and then in the first corner I braked very late on the outside to pass [Daniil] Kvyat and nearly [Kimi] Raikkonen.

"Everything went fine, and sometimes you need to get lucky. Sometimes you go from hero to zero and today was a good one.

"I was thinking about the podium because in Singapore some [strange] things can happen."

Although Alonso held off a train of cars in the first stint, he eventually fell to seventh behind Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari and Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

"Seventh was the maximum, the first of the rest after Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari," Alonso admitted.

"We were not the fourth-quickest team here.

"Today I think we maximised what we had and next time we can improve."

BUTTON RETIRED WITH BRAKE DAMAGE

Alonso's team-mate Jenson Button, who ultimately retired with brake damage related to the first-lap crash, was impressed with what the Spaniard achieved.

"Fernando did a really good job today," said Button.

"I really don't think the car was quick enough to be seventh, but he did a good job and others had problems.

Button's damage was picked up when he clipped Valtteri Bottas as both tried to avoid Hulkenberg's crashing car.

He rejoined with a new nose section but later had to park.

"The whole race the car was damaged," Button explained.

"I was running with a lot less downforce and also the downforce balance was completely wrong.

"The reason we stopped was because of the brakes.

"We were worried about brake failure because of the temperature getting higher because of the damage.

"Even the smallest difference to the brake duct can make a difference and it was quite a big difference."

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Vettel pleased with comeback in Singapore

Sebastian Vettel claimed that he was surprised to climb so high up the grid after starting the Singapore Grand Prix at the back of the grid.

Unsurprisingly, Vettel started the Grand Prix on the soft tyre compound as he tried to stretch out his stints for as long as possible.

The strategy proved successful, with quadruple World Champion saying he probably would have been in contention for a podium spot had another safety car been called for.

“Anything can happen here,” said the German.

“For sure it was a long way away and seemed out of reach after the poor start, but then I think we slowly got into the groove and especially in the last two stints the car really came alive and we make good progress so it was good fun, I enjoyed it a lot.

“I had a really bad start, didn’t go anywhere, had a lot of wheel slip – it was obviously really low grip. Very different if you start last, I think this is probably my first time really dead last. I think I’ve started from the pit lane a couple of times, but last on the grid. Then there was the incident on the main straight but I was far back enough to have a lot of time to see where the car was going.

“Then after the safety car, was trying to make progress which at the beginning was quite good and then I got stuck behind the Sauber for quite many laps. Then I think running into the back of the Force India of Sergio I think was the limit on those tyres.

“At some point I thought we maybe could get close to the battle for third with Kimi and Lewis but in the end the gap was a bit too big – I think we lost a bit too much probably in the opening stages of the race which also was to be expected. I think we were hoping for a safety car that didn’t come, but nonetheless I think it was an optimal result.”

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Grosjean: I thought it couldn’t get any worse

Retiring before he can start the formation lap of the Singapore Grand Prix, Haas driver Romain Grosjean insisted that he has full confidence in the team.

Adding to his weekend woes, the former Lotus driver failed to record a lap during FP1 and only 12 laps in FP2 before retiring. The Frenchman also crashed out of the qualifiers in Q2.

Despite the setbacks, the 30-year-old is still upbeat about the American team’s future in the sport.

“I’m all fine. I’m all confident about the future,” Grosjean said.

“Right now what we want to do is to make sure our updates work well in Malaysia and get things together to have a smooth weekend.

“I thought after yesterday it couldn’t get any worse, but unfortunately it did.

“I felt so bad for the guys, who have been working so hard to get the car back together and try to recover the time we lost in FP1. But we lost the brake-by-wire and we couldn’t race like this. We don’t know what happened. It’s hard on everyone.

“We couldn’t even do a lap. The brake pedal was not working. We just couldn’t find the problem and the pedal was going to the floor.”

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Hulkenberg: A frustrating racing incident

Although frustrated by his retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg concedes it was nothing more than a racing incident.

Fighting for position off the line, Hulkenberg made a great start to find himself sandwiched between the Toro Rossos.

That resulted in contract with Carlos Sainz, which sent the Force India spearing into the pitlane wall.

With his car badly damaged, Hulkenberg was out of the grand prix, a point-less Sunday in Singapore.

“We did get off the grid but just not very far,” he said.

“I had a really good start, probably a worst start would have been better in this case.

“I went for the gap but got sandwiched by the Toro Rossos.

“Had contact as Carlos hit me on my rear left with his front which turned me into the wall.

“Pretty frustrating as today could have been a good Sunday.”

The German, though, was quick to state that the accident was nothing more than a racing incident.

“Pretty much,” was his reply when asked whether it was a racing incident. “I don’t think it is intent that early when the cars are taking off, accelerating.

“No intention, just racing but it is frustrating.”

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CAREY: FORMULA 1 CANNOT BE A DICTATORSHIP

Formula One cannot be run like a dictatorship, even if many people in the sport are used to that, according to the new chairman appointed to work with commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Chase Carey, who took on the role as part of Liberty Media’s takeover of the sport this month, said also that Formula One’s U.S. expansion should ultimately look at big cities like Los Angeles, New York or Miami.

The primary concern, however, was building long-term value and investing in the future.

“Realistically what I am doing in the next few months is probably more listening to what people have to say,” he told the official formula1.com website before Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.

“You cannot make everybody happy all the time, but you’ve got to understand what everybody wants and then find a path,” added the American.

“That is not a task for a committee, as committees tend to become bureaucratic – but there also can’t be a dictatorship, even if probably here they are used to it.”

Carey, former executive vice-chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, said he would be working for Formula One and not Liberty.

He saw opportunities for stepping up investment “in all sorts of areas” including marketing and new digital platforms as well as making tracks more exciting.

Carey said he was too old to be an apprentice to Ecclestone, who has run Formula One for decades, but “hopefully by working together we can figure out how to get the best out of the sport.”

He reiterated that nothing was written in stone, “Bernie is the CEO, so Bernie is going to lead it and I will work with Bernie to establish some kind of strategic plan to where you want to go.”

Ecclestone separately told Sky Sports television that he did not see a problem with the new chairman.
Also In Sports News

“We will work together. He has got expertise that I haven’t, we need to be in America, he knows America, he knows television and he can help us a lot. So I’m sure that is what is going to happen,” said the 85-year-old.

He indicated, however, that he would not stick around regardless.

“Thank God at the moment I don’t quite need the money, I don’t need a job and if by chance things aren’t going the way I think would be the right way then I will disappear for sure,” said the Briton.

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VERSTAPPEN: I DID NOT ASK FOR TEAM ORDERS TO GET BY KVYAT

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen denies he was seeking team orders to get by the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat as the pair dueled wheel-to-wheel during the Singapore Grand Prix.

After a bad start, Verstappen was making his way through the field when he came upon the man he replaced at Red Bull. It was a ‘no holds barred’ contest as the pair went for it and at one point Verstappen shouted over the radio: “Come on, man!”

Asked after the race if he was seeking team orders from the pit wall, the teenage Dutchman insisted, “No, no. I don’t think that’s the order, I think I should get by by myself.”

“It was getting quite intense at one point, going a bit off the track. We were just losing a lot of time and of course after such a bad start you are a bit disappointed.”

Verstappen’s bad start compromised his race, but it appears he and the team were aware that there could be a problem.

He told media after the race, “Before the start the team already said the start wouldn’t be ideal because the clutch wasn’t working properly.”

“[Saturday] night they discovered that the clutch wouldn’t bite well, but they weren’t allowed to change anything by the FIA because it wasn’t a structural problem and I was able to race with it.”

“I dropped the clutch and just had a lot of wheelspin and then there’s nothing you can do,” added Verstappen.

As the field roared off the line, he was lucky not to get collected by Nico Hulkenberg’s out of control Force India which flew past the front of the Red Bull before slamming the wall.

“I have no clue [how I avoided contact]. I was very lucky to not get hit, but it was only the start, he would have been behind us,” said Verstappen after finishing his last race as an 18 year old in sixth place.

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WOLFF: THAT IS THE BEST NICO ROSBERG I HAVE SEEN

Nico Rosberg powered to a well calculated, albeit, very narrow victory in the Singapore Grand Prix but it was enough to impress his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff who hailed his drive on the night as the best he has seen from the German.

Speaking after watching a tense final dozen laps at the Marina Bay Circuit, Wolff said of Rosberg, “I’ve known him since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have seen at any weekend since then. We have the tendency to say Lewis has awesome pace and this is what we have seen with Nico this weekend – he was just blindingly fast.”

“He was 0.6 [of a second] quicker than P2 in qualifying in Singapore, which is not something we are used to seeing at all here. He drove the race in the same way, he had a great start, controlled the pace.”

“On the contrary Lewis didn’t have a good weekend – he was lacking laps to find out about the right setup, so he couldn’t really choose the direction and that caused him to go backwards from then on.”

Wolff believes the championship will go down to the last race in Abu Dhabi, and predicts the pendulum swinging either way between then and the finale on 21 November.

“We have the tendency of talking one up and the other one down, and we have had that for three years since the two of them have been fighting for the championship,” mused Wolff.

“We have seen those waves and I remember talking about Lewis’ momentum a few weeks ago and then suddenly we had this mega Nico weekend and in two weeks we are going to see if that changes or stays the same in Malaysia,” added the Austrian who has seen his drivers win all but one of the fifteen grand prix races so far this season.

With six rounds left in the 2016 world championship, Rosberg now leads Hamilton by eight points. Previously the German led from the first race until the British Grand Prix, when the balance of power shifted to the Briton’s side of the garage.

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LIKE FATHER LIKE SON FOR ROSBERG?

Nico Rosberg drew level with Damon Hill in Formula One’s all-time list of race winners on Sunday and the odds are narrowing on the German matching the Briton again as the only sons of world champions to take the title.

Hill, the 1996 champion and son of late double title-holder Graham, currently stands alone with that achievement but maybe not for much longer.

Even if Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton remains the bookmakers’ favourite to take his fourth title, Rosberg is increasingly fancied after retaking the championship lead with six races to go.

“While Rosberg has the advantage on paper, we think Lewis Hamilton is still favourite but only just,” commented William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly.

Malaysia, next up in two weeks’ time, could swing the balance further towards the German who has won all three races since the summer break and eight — out of 15 — this season.

He is eight points clear of Hamilton, the first time he has led the standings since July, and reaching new levels of performance.

“I’ve known Nico since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout the weekend since then,” declared Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff. “He was just blindingly fast.”

The German is already a Formula One phenomenon, holding an unwanted record that he hopes to shed — that of the most successful driver not to win a championship.

He took that from Britain’s Stirling Moss, who won 16 grands prix and was four times overall runner-up in the 1950s.

No driver has ever won eight races in a season and not taken the title, even if there are a record 21 this year, so that would also be a first if he fails to prevail.

Rosberg, whose Finnish father Keke took the 1982 title and won just five Formula One races, already has more victories to his name than 19 champions.

His 22 puts him level with Hill, whose father ranks some way behind on 14.

One more would put Rosberg level with triple champion Nelson Piquet of Brazil, two would equal five-times champion Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina.

By the end of the season, if he continues the streak, he could have passed Niki Lauda, Jim Clark (both 25) and Jackie Stewart (27).

Finns have already hailed Rosberg as their most successful driver — the German-born Monaco resident has a Finnish passport — since he overtook double champion Mika Hakkinen and 2007 winner Kimi Raikkonen (both 20 wins).

Rosberg made more history in Singapore on Sunday when he became, in his 200th career start, the first non-champion to win that floodlit race since it joined the calendar in 2008.

“What a weekend, crazy stuff,” he said. “It just all came together really well…

“Singapore hasn’t treated me all too well in the past years, especially 2014 breaking down on the start whilst I was in the championship battle. So to get the win here was also extra-special.”

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STEWART: MAYBE HAMILTON HAS BOTTOMED OUT

In the aftermath of the Singapore Grand Perix, Sir Jackie Stewart has suggested that Lewis Hamilton’s lifestyle has resulted in the world champions slump and allowed Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to take command of the championship race.

Rosberg won in Singapore to take an eight points lead in the standings, while Hamilton finished third nd endured a below-par weekend on track.

Stewart, who has in the past questioned Hamilton’s commitment and frowned on the Briton’s lifestyle told the Daily Mail, “Maybe you can bottom out. That can happen through consistent success because when you have consistent success everything can seem so easy.”

“Suddenly things can go less well — you overdrive, you are not on the ball, or you live a life that distracts you. If you are at the top in any line of work, you can get carried away with success. You think you can get away with things. Then someone else comes along and drives better or more consistently.”

“I was always frightened of being beaten. I always thought there could be someone out there better than me or who might have a better car. So I always worked on that basis. I could never sit back and relax,” admitted Stewart who, like Hamilton, is a triple Formula 1 world champion.

The summer break for Hamilton, by his own admission, was action packed as he jetted from one continent to another, enjoyed headline grabbing parties and was guest at several glamour events.

Hamilton’s celebrity lifestyle is always highlighted when the Englishman has a slump in form and right now the balance of power has swung away from him.

He hast not stood on the top step of the podium since the season resumed, from the summer break, with Rosberg scooping the top prize in all the three races since then.

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Esteban Gutierrez: 'Unfair of Toto Wolff to make fun of me publicly'

Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez has responded to criticism from Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff, after the Austrian berated the Mexican for 'cruising around and interfering' in others races by failing to respect blue flags.

Wolff's comments were made after the Singapore Grand Prix in which Gutierrez took his time allowing race leader Nico Rosberg and the chasing Daniel Ricciardo through, despite having been shown several blue flags.

Gutierrez has come under scrutiny for the same thing before and received a time penalty in Hungary for holding up Lewis Hamilton, whilst Daniel Ricciardo complained about the same issue in Belgium.

Speaking to the media after the race, Wolff said: "You have one guy cruising around and interfering in the race and it happens to always be the same guy!"

Gutierrez responded to the comments, saying it was unfair of Wolff to make fun of him publicly and should have approached him personally to discuss the matter.

"Making fun of me publicly is not a fair way to do things," he told Autosport. "He could very easily have come to me and spoken to me face-to-face.

"If he has something to say he can come to me and speak about it. He knows I am an open person, he knows I'm very transparent."

The 25-year-old insists he won't change his approach as he wasn't penalised in Singapore, therefore he feels he did nothing wrong.

"It's just disappointing what was said [by Wolff]. But people can make fun of me, they can say whatever they want, but there are rules.

"If I was doing something wrong then I would be penalised, as simple as that."

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Daniil Kvyat: I left my soul on the track in Singapore

Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat says he left his soul on the track and “pushed until the very last centimetre” during the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Russian driver has suffered a difficult run of races since his demotion from Red Bull to Toro Rosso before the Spanish Grand Prix.

But Kvyat put in a feisty performance at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, eventually crossing the line in ninth place.

He felt more could have been possible in Singapore, but was happy to return to the top 10 and add to his tally of points.

“I think I did the most I could out there – I had good fun and enjoyed some great battles,” he said after the race.

“Unfortunately, after a first good stint things didn’t come together as expected… we ended up behind Perez and didn’t have enough straight-line speed to overtake him.

“I pushed until the very last centimetre and left my soul on the track – it’s a shame, but I’m happy to finish in the points again. In all fairness, the team did a good job after what’s been a tough period.”

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Singapore result a boost for Renault - Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen says 10th place in the Singapore Grand Prix is a welcome boost for the Renault team after a tough 2016 so far.

The Danish driver lined up in 15th place at the Marina Bay Street Circuit but made good progress in the early stages, helped by a strong start.

He ran in the top 10 for the majority of the race and ended up taking the final point, finishing ahead of Esteban Gutierrez.

Magnussen admitted it has been a difficult year for Renault but said the 10th place in Singapore is a boost for the Enstone-based outfit.

“I’m very happy for the whole team as this must be a boost for all of us,” he said.

“It’s been a very demanding season as we all want to score points at every race, but that’s not been possible.

“Nevertheless we all keep fighting and a result like today [Sunday] shows why we fight and why we never give up.

“The team nailed it with the strategy, with the start and with the balance of the car. To drive a race like this and not to win it; it feels strange because for me it felt perfect.”

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FIA will ensure there's no repeat of marshal incident

The FIA has said it will ensure there is no repeat of the bizarre incident during the opening laps of the Singapore Grand Prix when a marshal was still on the track when the race restarted and narrowly avoided being hit by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes.

The Safety Car was issued following an incident involving Nico Hulkenberg in which he crashed at the start of the race. When the race restarted and the pack headed down to Turn 1 at full racing speed, a marshal was seen picking up debris on the circuit before realising what was headed his way.

He quickly sprinted to the side of the circuit just as Rosberg passed him.

Explaining the situation after the race, the FIA, whilst blaming no particular individual, said a circuit official had instructed the marshal to head back out on track, despite the "track clear" warning having sounded three times.

A spokesperson told Autosport that they would ensure it doesn't happen again in future.

"We take this very seriously," they said. "We're not trying to put the blame on single people.

"Everything will be done to ensure this does not happen again."

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Rio Haryanto feeling 'positive' about 2017 F1 chances

Rio Haryanto says things are “looking positive” over his future in Formula 1 in 2017, after losing his Manor seat mid-way through 2016.

The Indonesian driver failed to meet his contractual obligations and his race contract was terminated over the summer break.

He was replaced from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards by Mercedes junior and reigning GP3 champion Esteban Ocon.

Haryanto was offered a reserve driver role at Manor, which he accepted, and now he is focusing on a race return in 2017.

“We've been working very hard to find sponsors,” Haryanto is quoted saying by Fox Sports.

“We've been looking at possibilities for the teams in Formula 1, I think things are looking positive, looking good.

“In the next couple of weeks there will be lots of announcements for [other] drivers [and] teams, hopefully you guys can hear from me soon.”

Haryanto added he feels he has done a “good job” and been competitive against Manor team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.

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Mercedes and Ferrari both split tyre choices for Malaysian GP

The Mercedes and Ferrari Formula 1 teams have both opted for split tyre nomination choices for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen will both have three sets of the hard tyre on offer, with three sets of mediums and seven sets of the soft compound.

Meanwhile Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel have gone for two sets of the hard tyre, four sets of the mediums and seven of the soft tyres.

It means the two title rivals, Rosberg and Hamilton, have gone for slightly different tyre strategies for the race at the Sepang International Circuit.

Mercedes’ nearest rival in the constructors’ championship, Red Bull, has chosen differently too. Both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will have three sets of hard tyres, four sets of mediums and six sets of the soft compound at their disposal.

Unlike in recent races, the variation in tyre choices is fairly minimal, with no drastic or aggressive strategies.

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Alonso suggests he joined McLaren with ‘too much hope’

Fernando Alonso has reiterated his belief that McLaren-Honda will win a race in the future, but admitted that he might have joined the revamped team with too much hope.

When the Spaniard joined a reformed McLaren-Honda in 2015, he came in with the expectation that he and his team-mate Jenson Button would be fighting for podiums.

Their expectations were soon dashed as the duo failed to challenge any of the top teams due to constant reliability issues and an underpowered car. The Woking-based outfit only managed 28-points and came second last on the Constructors’ Championship table.

“The trust was always there but sometimes last year it was just hope,” the double World Champion said.

“There was just too much hope and you want to see the results at one point, you want to touch the result at one point and now that we start feeling that I think that everyone is more excited, everyone is more motivated and everyone wants to arrive in Australia next year already now. This is a very good feeling.”

Enjoying a much more successful 2016 season, Alonso is excited to get 2017 started with his incoming team-mate, Stoffel Vandoorne, and continue their rapid progress.

“[I am] very confident. I think we really need this progress to see it because last year we have a lot of trust in the project, this year in the beginning we have a lot of trust, no one had any doubts that McLaren-Honda will win sooner or later,” he explained.

“To see us now competing with some of the teams that it was unthinkable some months ago, even Spa finishing in front of one Williams, one Ferrari, it was really needed I think for the team.

“Everyone in the factory and everyone in the team now see this progress after the hard work and now it’s extra motivation for everyone because we all know that we just need that last step.”

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Sainz left disappointed after Sunday night

Carlos Sainz revealed he should have achieved higher than P14 at the Marina Bay Circuit on Sunday night, especially after his encouraging qualifying performance.

Both Sainz’ and his team-mate Daniil Kvyat were pleased with their qualifying result in the top ten, as the duo felt they would finally return to the points after number fruitless results in recent times.

At the start of the Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz clipped Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg after trying to avoid Max Verstappen, who had a slow start. The incident resulted in Hulkenberg retiring and an early pitstop for the Spaniard as he was ordered to remove a loose piece of his car.

“I’m angry after [last Sunday]’s race, especially after having qualified in P6,” the 22-year-old said.

“The race didn’t start well, as I had to avoid Max when the lights went out and, while doing that, a Force India suddenly came flying by and we collided.

“He took the worst part and I took the second worst part, damaging the right-hand side of my car.

“However, we still had decent pace after this and we were fighting for points, but we were forced to stop early as we were shown the black and orange flag and we re-joined the race behind too much traffic.

“But I stay positive: the level of performance we’ve shown this weekend has been amazing and points would’ve certainly been possible. It’s time to look forward to the next two races in Malaysia and Japan, where hopefully we’ll achieve a better result than.”

Kvyat, though, showed a relatively impressive display as the Russian returned to the points after a flurry of underwhelming results. He also garnered praise for his stubbornness after he kept Red Bull replacement Verstappen at bay for a number of laps.

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Smedley: Force India will be more disappointed than us

Williams’s Rob Smedley explained that the points gap between Force India and themselves could have been much bigger had it not been for Nico Hulkenberg’s crash at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Suffering a point-less Sunday, Valtteri Bottas retired his car on the 35th lap due to overheating while Felipe Massa finished P12, the same position he qualified in.

Interestingly, Smedley, Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, believes that Force India will be more disappointed than them as they missed a huge opportunity to gain some major points on the Constructors’ Championship table.

“I’ve congratulated them for getting four points and jumping back in front of us,” he revealed.

“They did a good job. They’ll be much more disappointed than us. This was a great track where they could have made inroads on us like we did on them at Monza.

“Having lost only four points to them and being one point behind in the championship, I think we’ve been reasonably lucky to be honest. If Nico had not had his unfortunate incident in the first 100 meters, it could have looked a lot worse.

“I think it will be fairly evenly-matched now, maybe a little bit in our favour going into the last race.

“To say that we are confident of outscoring them is perhaps a little bit bullish. We’re going to go to Malaysia and Japan with very even performance if not a little bit in our favour.

“Then USA should be somewhere that suits us. Mexico possibly a little bit back in their favour. Abu Dhabi is always a reasonable track for us… and Brazil will be a good track for us [as well].”