Heavy rain in Singapore has forced a delay to the start of today’s Formula 1 race at the Marina Bay circuit.
Conditions were dry at the circuit when the drivers’ parade lap took place at 6pm local time, two hours before the scheduled start. But rain began to fall soon afterwards, which increased in intensity, leaving the track awash.The race starting procedure was due to begin at 7:20pm local time, 40 minutes before the scheduled start. But due to the large volumes of water on the circuit, race control announced the opening of the pit lane and the race starting procedure had been delayed.
After waiting for the rain to ease, race control announced a new starting time of 9:05pm. The starting procedure will begin at 8:05pm and the pit lane will be open for cars to head to the track from 8:25pm to 8:35pm.
The maximum three-hour time limit within which the race must take place begins once the start is given.
The W Series support race took place at the track earlier today in dry conditions. Its qualifying session yesterday was disrupted by rain, which also led to F1 qualifying taking place on a wet track.
This is the second time this season the start of a race has been delayed due to rain. The Monaco Grand Prix in May was also disrupted by a pre-race downpour. Then as today, Eduardo Freitas is taking his turn as FIA F1 race director.
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bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
2nd October 2022, 12:37
It’s not going to be starting for a while. It’s got a Spa 21′ look to it.
petebaldwin (@)
2nd October 2022, 12:48
Track doesn’t look bad to me. Give them 3 or 4 laps behind the safetycar to clear some more of the water and then line up on the grid and go. This is nothing like Spa was in terms of the conditions. They’ll be on inters before this starts.
George.be
2nd October 2022, 13:22
Agreed.
Why do they even have rain tires? They’ve never raced a lap on them. Give the green light 5 min after the rain stops, and the cars will push the water off line in another 5 minutes. If needed do a few reconnaissance-laps after the SC before a standing start.
Nick T.
2nd October 2022, 14:28
Pathetic. Almost as pathetic as full safety car for Zhou. That should have never been more than a yellow flag. Absurd. F1 has become such a joke when it comes to safety cars, VSCs and rain delays.
Nick T.
2nd October 2022, 15:30
Mixed conditions like these create more accidents and therefore V/SCs than running in legitimately wet conditions. Don’t forget during that whole delay which was JUST for the formation lap, they were continuously using track drying equipment when it wasn’t even wet for an hour.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
2nd October 2022, 16:31
@petebaldwin
Then you can’t have seen the same thing everyone else saw as the track was under water in a few places with exceptionally heavy monsoon levels of rain continuing the fall for much of the delay.
Even when the safety car went out and did a few laps when the rain had begun to ease off a bit there was still sections of the track (Turn 3 for example) that were still badly flooded to the point I don’t see how anyone who saw that could say it was good enough for any racecar on any tires to be out on even at slower speeds.
StephenH
2nd October 2022, 12:53
Formula One is scared of the rain.
S
2nd October 2022, 12:57
Good enough now. Let’s go.
S
2nd October 2022, 12:59
What?!
Full 1 hour procedure starting from now?!
No, F1. No!
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
2nd October 2022, 13:08
You are still watching, so why should they care?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
2nd October 2022, 13:59
Who doesn’t have an hour of their life wasted on their day off?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
2nd October 2022, 13:59
*love
Prab
2nd October 2022, 13:22
This is just silly FIA.
Might as well ask Pirelli to stop making the wet tires entirely because you don’t let cars go out on them.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd October 2022, 21:51
Exactly, it’s just tiring.
Bobby Balboa
2nd October 2022, 13:31
Absolute joke. The cars have extreme wet tyres & the drivers can manage the conditions.
Go watch Spa 98
No point in full wet tyres at all as they are never allowed to race on them.
Poor show
Imre (@f1mre)
2nd October 2022, 13:36
Stupidity forced the delay. Why exactly are they not racing now? It has not been raining for half an hour.
petebaldwin (@)
2nd October 2022, 13:42
Got to let the sponsors and celebrities have their grid walk….
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
2nd October 2022, 13:53
I hope the sport is affected by this long term. Spa and monaco this year were brushed over too quickly. I hope the audience is very low for the race.
Jonathan Parkin
2nd October 2022, 14:04
Bring back acclimatisation practice
S
2nd October 2022, 16:28
F1: “Don’t repeat Monaco. Don’t repeat Monaco…”
F1: Messes it up even worse than Monaco.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
2nd October 2022, 16:38
I’m glad they didn’t start the 3 hour clock until the rescheduled start, but I just despair that they delayed it by as much as they did. The fact every driver started on inters instead of wets tells it’s own story. What’s the point in having wets if you’re not willing to start a race in true wet conditions?
superman
2nd October 2022, 19:40
Cars built like tanks yet they can’t handle a bit of water on the track for fear of an accident. Certainly gives me a lot more respect for the drivers of past who just got on with it.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd October 2022, 21:53
Indeed, even just interlagos 2016 was pretty good in recent times, despite many SC, but at least they didn’t do this silly wait-till-rain-ends stuff.
MacLeod (@macleod)
3rd October 2022, 8:31
The first delay was ok but 10 minutes before the 30 minutes it was clear the track was ready so why the extra 30 minutes That was insane!
Pirelli should change the current Wet into Inters and the New Wets should take car of the monsoons in creasing the ride height of bigger wheels.
Rain should be no problem on streetscircuits!