05/09/2018
NEWS STORY
While Ferrari, like Racing Point Force India and Haas is taking nine sets of the hypersoft to Singapore next weekend, Mercedes is taking just six, the German team the most conservative in its approach to the street race.
Singapore marks the third appearance of the pink-banded rubber, which will subsequently be used in Russia, Mexico and Abu Dhabi.
On the other hand, Ferrari takes just one set of the softs for each of its drivers, a strategy echoed by Sergey Sirotkin, Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rosso pair, while Mercedes, along with Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and Charles Leclerc takes three sets.
For the last two years, the soft, supersoft and ultrasofts have been used at the event.
Following last year's start-line crash which saw Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen eliminated, Lewis Hamilton took victory ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas.
The Briton was on a one-stop strategy which saw his start on Inters before switching to used ultras. Ricciardo ran a two stop strategy, while tenth-placed Esteban Ocon made three stops.
The only night time event on the calendar, Singapore has the added challenge in that two of the sessions (FP1 and FP3) take place in daylight when temperatures are higher than in qualifying and the race. That said, even at night, ambient temperatures remain high, leading to some thermal degradation.
With 23 corners, the tyres have their work cut out, the rear-left the most stressed on a track featuring the most corners of the year and the second-slowest lap after Monaco.