With the European leg of the season completed, Formula 1 now heads for Asia, which provides the backdrop to the next two races, before heading for Qatar in the Middle East at the start of October. The action starts this week in Singapore, before moving to Japan the following weekend. The Marina Bay circuit in the city state that borders Malaysia is now something of a modern classic on the calendar. It was first held in 2008, when it was the very first race run entirely at night, since when it has been a permanent fixture apart from 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic led to its cancellation.
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MotorTranscript
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00:02 - Singapore, a very cool race to go to,
00:09 and a really cool city to be.
00:13 Very weird because of the timetable that we have there.
00:17 We actually go to sleep at 5 a.m.
00:20 and wake up at 2 p.m.
00:22 So it's a very strange schedule
00:25 that we have as racing drivers there
00:27 because the sessions are in the evening
00:29 and we keep the clock to the European time
00:32 to make our life a bit simpler as an athlete.
00:36 Talking about that,
00:39 it is a circuit that you need to be prepared for.
00:41 I always mark it in the calendar
00:44 as a point in the season that I need to arrive
00:46 well-prepared physically.
00:48 I have to make sure that the few weeks before
00:56 and my diet and my preparation is up to the high standards
01:01 because normally here is, yeah,
01:04 it's not like you suffer, but you struggle in the race.
01:08 It's really warm.
01:09 It's really difficult to keep the focus
01:12 and concentration between all these walls.
01:15 I think in the cockpit is higher than 40 degrees, 50 degrees
01:19 and I remember it gets really, really, really warm
01:22 inside the helmet, inside the body,
01:24 and you have to make sure you are prepared.
01:26 And for that, we do specific training
01:28 in the sauna, in steam baths.
01:30 You just make sure you're well-climatized to the heat.
01:35 And yeah, as you see, it's super busy the lap.
01:38 So you never stop turning the wheel.
01:42 You never stop upshifting, braking, accelerating.
01:45 You're always full concentration.
01:48 Also, the race here is normally two hours long.
01:51 In other circuits like Mondstadt,
01:52 it can even be one hour, one hour 15,
01:55 but in Singapore, it's always two hours.
01:57 So it's not only the warmest, the longest, the toughest.
02:02 So everything builds up to be a very tough test
02:06 for us drivers.
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