Has Qatar overtaken Singapore as F1’s hardest race?

The Singapore Grand Prix is the one the Formula 1 drivers all train for: the hardest on the calendar. You’ll be hearing these modern motorsport cliches plenty this weekend.

But there’s a case to be made that one of the championship’s newer night races has taken Singapore’s mantle as F1’s toughest physical racing challenge: the Qatar GP.

It’s the drivers themselves that have made the case.

“Qatar’s kind of overtaken it, at least in my opinion, in terms of physicality,” Williams driver Alex Albon replies, when Autosport recently enquired about the specific challenge of Singapore.

Albon has a rather unique perspective on F1 physical tests, given he took part in the 2022 Singapore event just three weeks after an appendectomy. Following his surgery, the Anglo-Thai racer had also suffered a shock respiratory failure and required intensive care treatment.

“If I did it again, I’m not sure I would do!” he jokes. “But it was a good challenge to myself. I proved that I could do it still. I did crash that race as well, but yeah, it was a good challenge. Tough.”

Albon also points out that for the first time since it joined the calendar in 2008, the Singapore race is immediately following another in punishing back-to-back scheduling – after that brilliant, brutal race in Baku last weekend.

Alex Albon, Williams Racing

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“We’re moving quite a bit in terms of distances, Baku to Singapore,” Albon says. “Which is going to be quite challenging, as well just for the body, for the rest and the mind, and everything like that.”

George Russell agrees when we present his good friend’s point about Qatar now possibly being harder for the F1 pack than Singapore.

“Yeah, I’d say Qatar is probably the most physical circuit of the year now,” the Mercedes driver replies.

Here then is the case for each – two of the six night races, with such events now making up a quarter of the F1 calendar.

Immediately on this point, however, there’s a difference. With Qatar being only two hours ahead of the UK (referenced because the majority of the F1 squads are based there), compared to seven hours for Singapore, it’s much harder to adjust sleep patterns rather than simply staying on the previous timezone, as the paddock will do this weekend.

Sleep adjustment is always extra critical for the drivers, because, as Martin Poole, Nico Hulkenberg’s trainer explains, ensuring a racer “sleeps well actually really helps with how well he’s able to replenish his energy after burning so many more calories every time he’s out track” during the hottest races.

There’s limited data to compare temperatures for these two events given Qatar has only twice appeared on the calendar. And has done so at two different times (more on that later) of year.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

But the 2023 Qatar race (32.4°C ambient average) made headlines for drivers getting exactly the “headaches, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps and obviously increased body temperature” Poole works with Hulkenberg to avoid.

They do this with a heat acclimatisation plan of summer training in the heat of the day they’d usually avoid, plus extra cognitive tests to simulate brain drain under additional stress from the heat. Albon is among the drivers that add regular heat chamber sessions to their heat acclimatisation routines.

For comparison, the 2023 Singapore event took place at a 31.1°C ambient average. But this race also has a much higher humidity factor for the drivers to consider. Humidity levels in Singapore are around 20% higher when compared to Qatar.

“The problem with the humidity and heat as a combination is that your body will sweat, but it’s far more difficult for that sweat to then evaporate so your body’s natural cooling system is compromised,” explains Faith Atack-Martin, Haas’s team physio.

“So, you will sweat more profusely and that then leads to an imbalance within your salt within your bloodstream. That’s the equilibrium between certain salts in your bloodstream that allow you to move and to have good cognition.”

To try and combat this, drivers consume more chilled drinks – usually with a higher concentration of glucose and electrolytes – at such hot events. They must also eat more overall to combat the effects of appetite suppression in heat, tend to wear ice vests pre-track sessions, plus dunk into those now famous ice baths.

There is a race duration distinction between Singapore and Qatar that is important to remember.

George Russell, Mercedes W13

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Of the 14 Singapore races to have been held since 2008 – with 2020 and 2021 events lost to the COVID-19 pandemic – all but one have run within 10 minutes of hitting F1’s two-hour race limit. Five Singapore races have even gone over that threshold, while both Qatar events so far have come in under 90-minutes in length.

But the most critical differences between Qatar and Singapore for testing driver physical limits come down to their track layouts.

Qatar’s main straight is the longest of all those across the two at 1.068km, but Singapore has five long acceleration zones overall, which allows for some additional respite for the drivers.

Raised against this is how any street course comes with considerable concentration load of avoiding the walls. Although the strict need to avoid kerb abuse in Qatar could be considered a comparison of sorts…

On this, with the 2023 Qatar race famously made to include mandatory pitstops because the tyres couldn’t withstand repeated blows over new, large pyramid-style kerbs at high-speed, tyre management also comes into any physical race challenge consideration.

Not having to push the tyres to keep them going over a long stint is not just critical to winning, it means the drivers can compete for longer than when they’re forced to push – as was the case at Qatar 2023 – for a full GP distance.

Singapore has such a tyre management test each year, while driving much slower than the maximum with a significantly reduced threat of passing due to the tighter confines of a street circuit – as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz deployed so well to win here last year – is a big tactical factor too.

“On very long tracks where there are not too many gravitational loads because there are fewer laps in a race distance, concentration is much more important than physical abilities and strength,” says Pierluigi Della Bona, Sainz’s trainer.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“On shorter tracks where the driver tackles more laps and therefore more corners, gravitational loads on the core and the abdomen are higher. So, apart from concentration, muscular strength comes into play.”

This is the critical difference that the drivers are remembering between Qatar and Singapore.

The Losail circuit features 16 corners compared to Singapore’s 19. But the lap is a third of a mile longer and is tackled at a much higher average speed. In qualifying in Qatar this is 205.1mph compared to 178.6mph in Singapore, plus 147.3mph versus 91mph in the race.

“And it’s the high-speed corners that are most demanding,” says Russell. “A high-speed corner, you’ve got 5Gs on the body laterally.

“In Qatar, you’ve got the first corner, that’s really long in duration. You’ve got the triple right out the back, the left as well, after that the penultimate corner I think you’re pulling 4-5G. So, your body is just totally under this strain.”

During the Qatar versus Singapore discussion, the former’s punishing layout meant Russell even recalled his “first F1 race when I did it in Melbourne [in 2019]” where he says, “my body wasn’t used to the G-forces and I had so much pain in my stomach”.

“Because your stomach and your internals are just being thrown around constantly,” he adds. “So, in Qatar, when it’s so quick, high downforce, no tyre deg, extreme heat – it’s a pretty tough one”.

Logan Sargeant, Williams Racing

Photo by: Williams F1

Logan Sargeant withdrew with heatstroke in the Qatar challenge last year, while Alpine driver Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet and Aston Martin racer Lance Stroll briefly passed out.

As a result, the FIA updated F1’s 2024 rules to allow for a second cooling inlet scoop to be placed on the top of car noses to improve airflow towards drivers. But the teams don’t have to include this and indeed it is understood several don’t have them on their 2024 challengers.

The FIA vowed to act additionally and Autosport revealed that it is working on introducing a simplified air condition system to aid driver cooling in races.

But, while the Losail layout challenge will remain, in 2024 the race moving back two months into the country’s mild winter compared to its 2023 slot should mean the temperatures drop. Likely back to around the 27°C ambient average clocked in Qatar’s 2021 debut.

Pirelli also bringing softer tyres would reduce the requirement to push flatout for the duration, but this is yet to be confirmed.

For all the comparisons and differences, Qatar and Singapore are, concludes Albon, “where in January, February, when we’re training, we’re pretty much training for these two or three races in the calendar that really take it out of you.”