Formula 1 heads to Singapore for another spectacular weekend of racing, this time under the lights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The unique night schedule and dramatic setting of the city provides one of the most distinctive events of the season, as the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team prepares for another demanding three days on track.

The weekend ahead will stage the final Sprint event of the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship, bringing an intensified format with just one Free Practice session before Sprint Qualifying on Friday. With limited preparation time and competitive sessions from Friday evening onwards, the team will need to establish a strong baseline quickly and maximise every opportunity across the weekend.

Marina Bay presents a complex challenge for both the car and drivers. Its tight sequence of corners, some at 90-degrees, combined with the unforgiving barriers make the circuit a unique layout placing a premium on precision, traction and confidence, while the high temperatures and humidity create a demanding physical test. Although the key sessions take place at night, the conditions remain hot and humid, with changing track temperatures and an evolving surface adding further complexity.

Singapore is the final race of the current triple-header, and McLaren Mastercard arrives ready to complete this run of events with a focused and well executed performance. There's no getting away from the fact that, in the last two races, the team has been only the fourth strongest on the grid. During the very brief break, the team is focusing on analysing what went wrong between Baku and Sepang in terms of performance, and on how to provide Lando and Oscar with a more competitive package, picking up where they left off after the Madrid race, where only one incident had deprived Lando and the MCL40 of a victory that was well within his grasp.

Neil Houldey - Technical Director, Applied Engineering: "Singapore presents a unique challenge because we know everything is going to get hot, so we need to make sure we have the cooling correct, whether that is for the engine, gearbox, brakes or even the driver. From a set-up perspective, the track requires us to find the right balance between keeping the car in the correct aerodynamic window and delivering good ride performance over the bumps and kerbs.

"We don't think we fully maximised the performance available from the car at the last two events, so there is an opportunity to analyse the data and ensure we get everything we can from the MCL40 in Singapore. Our car may not be as well suited to the slow, 90-degree corners we see at Marina Bay, but we have also seen the competitive order vary from track to track this year. Our focus will be on maximising performance in every area and seeing what that delivers in lap time.

"With limited free running during a Sprint weekend, pre-event preparation carries even greater importance. We will arrive with a clear plan, while remaining adaptable to changing track conditions, Safety Cars and incidents. We want to win both races and know we have a quick car, but we need to extract all of its performance. The last two races did not deliver the results we wanted, but they provided valuable data and highlighted areas of opportunity. We must now put those races behind us, use them as motivation and focus fully on making good things happen in Singapore. There are still seven races to go before the end of the season, and everything is still to play for when it comes to the podium places in both championships."

McLaren Racing Heritage - Singapore

2 wins, 3 Poles, 8 podiums, 1 Fastest Lap

• Most recent win: 2024, Lando Norris in the MCL38

• Special race: 2009, Lewis Hamilton's win in the MP4-24

• Standout race: 2008, Lewis Hamilton's podium in the MP4-23 at Formula 1's first ever night-time Grand Prix.

The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix is in parts both famous and infamous. It produced one of the sport's biggest controversies in 'Crashgate', but the sordid details of that particular low point were many months in the future when the Chequered Flag fell on the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

In the moment, F1's first race under lights was a roaring success. It rose to the technical challenge, setting a new standard for downtown street circuits and pioneering the concept of an F1 night race that has since been successfully copied. It also extended Lewis Hamilton's lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship, and catapulted us into the lead of the Constructors' Championship. Whatever else the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix was, it was a very good evening for McLaren.

For Jonathan Brookes, then No.1 mechanic on Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren MP4-23, the greatest uncertainty beforehand was how the team would adapt to working under the lights: "It was obviously completely unfamiliar to all of us going and racing at night. There was a lot of discussion about whether we could see to do a pit stop. I remember that clearly, and there were all types of head torches and items that we tested. As it turned out, we didn't need any of that and the lighting's much better now than it was back then too, which helps teams operate like any other race event."

The unfamiliar setting of night racing also created an intense challenge in the garage as the team worked through its early on-track learnings. Jonathan continued by saying: "I think we only had around an hour between FP1 and FP2. I seem to remember it was tense because the timetable was different. It was chaos for every team because we'd never had that sort of reduced gap.

"I think the bumps on the circuit had caught everyone out. There were loads of car changes between the sessions, and I think if we were to do it now, it just wouldn't get done because you're going to a new track, unknown to everyone, and then you compress the time between FP1 and FP2 to react. I recall loads of damper changes, and loads of extra work on the car but with only half the time to do it."

Lewis lined up on the grid in P2. He was one point ahead, but one place behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa. The pair, who had been pursuing each other as F1 went through its European rounds, were difficult to separate, and both made good getaways to hold position off the line. The race, however, was blown apart by what happened behind them.

F1's regulations in 2008 allowed for mid-race refuelling and required drivers in the top 10 to start the race with the fuel load left in their tank after Q3. The rest of the field, however, could pick their fuel load before the race start. Fernando Alonso was starting P15 for Renault, after a fuel-feed problem meant he could not set a lap-time in Q2. He ran a short first stint, and was the first car to pit, coming in on Lap 12, from P11. His stop dropped him to last. Two laps later, his Renault team-mate, Nelson Piquet Jr, crashed in front of the Bay Grandstand, bringing out a Safety Car. The rules of the day kept the pit lane closed at the start of a Safety Car period. Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica pitted anyway, having no fuel to complete a further lap. When the pitlane opened on Lap 17, 11 further cars dived in. Lewis had a clean stop and got out well; Massa did not. Ferrari planned to double-shuffle him and Kimi Räikkönen, he was given an erroneous green light by Ferrari's high-tech traffic light system, he took off with the fuel hose still attached, skittling mechanics before stopping at the end of the pit lane. Once the hose was detached, he returned to the track in last place. A further penalty for an unsafe release, and a minor trip into the barriers late in the piece, only added insult to injury.

Rosberg was a net beneficiary from his stop in the closed pit lane. He had been running ninth, he came out in the lead, and after serving a 10-seconds stop-go penalty, emerged P3, which became P2 when the order finally shook-out mid-race, giving the young Rosberg the best result of his career to date. The real winner, however, was Alonso: his early stop had catapulted him into the lead. He stayed there through the second round of stops and took his and Renault's first victory of the season.

Meanwhile, Lewis made steady progress through the field. His stop under the Safety Car had dropped him to ninth. He gained places back as cars pitted ahead, though just before his second stop, he put a beautiful move on David Coulthard to briefly snatch P2. After a second good stop, he emerged in P4, kept a keen focus and moved up to P3 when Räikkönen pitted and came home there with six valuable points. Heikki Kovalainen in the other McLaren came home P10, outside the points, but a late-race crash for Räikkönen ensured Ferrari emerged from the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix with nothing. The first running of the Marina Bay Street Circuit therefore produced a well-executed strategy from the McLaren team, and a very calm drive from Lewis, keeping his head with madness all around.

Reflecting on how teams have adapted to the demands of Singapore since that inaugural race, Jonathan said: "Back in 2008, the whole weekend was different for everyone. We had new mealtimes and sleep schedules. It was all very strange having to do that for the first time. But I think the teams are a lot more organised and familiar with it now, especially since the race has been on the calendar for all these years.

"There are different elements that help now such as curfew, which we didn't have before. So, it's much more regimented and controlled with the schedules in place. The teams understand the meals required at the different time of day. I think everyone's adapted to understanding the right amount of sleep required because back in the first few races in Singapore, you could actually be guilty of almost getting too much sleep as well, which is another problem. It was just about getting your body used to being ready at the right time."

Marina Bay Street Circuit

Race laps: 62
Circuit length: 4.927 km/3.061 miles
Total race distance: 305.337 km/189.723 miles
Number of corners: 19 (7 right, 12 left)
Pitloss: +23s
Safety Car L1 pitloss: +11s
Energy management required: Low
Allocated tyre compounds: Hard: C3, Medium: C4 & Soft: C5