Experience

FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX | Marina Bay Street Circuit

Posted by Timothy on
Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Danny and I visited Singapore in February 2018. Perhaps the most decadent trip we did as we were only 77 hours in the city-state and flew business class with Cathay Pacific. Án we stayed at the InterContinental Robertson Quay (on points). Singapore is also home of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, driven on the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Parts where open to the public. 

Since 2018 I have made it a habit to visit race circuits whenever I can. So let’s revisit the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in its 2018 version. 

The Marina Bay Street Circuit encompasses the planning areas of Downtown Core (Turns 4 to 23) and Kallang (Turns 1 to 3). The track is 5.063 km (3.146 mi) long in a harbourside location similar in style to the Circuit de Monaco and the Valencia Street Circuit.

The circuit was designed by KBR, and is a modification of the original one first proposed by Hermann Tilke. The circuit has a FIA Grade 1 license, necessary to host F1 races.

The circuit holds a unique record of having at least one safety car appearance in every race to date. There has been a total of 23 safety car deployments in thirteen races.

Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The circuit

The pit area of the circuit is located in an empty plot of land off Republic Boulevard and beside the Singapore Flyer. A temporary road leads from the pit area and under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge to Republic Boulevard and turns onto Raffles Boulevard. It then proceeds along Nicoll Highway, Stamford Road and Saint Andrew’s Road around the Padang, past the City Hall.

The track then goes onto the Anderson Bridge, past the Fullerton Hotel and make a tight left turn to Esplanade Drive beside the Merlion Park. 

It joins Raffles Avenue and cuts right after the Esplanade to the front of The Float @ Marina Bay, then returning to the pit area via a second temporary road around the Singapore Flyer. The track layout is unique in that in between turns 18 and 19, the cars race underneath a section of grandstand of the Floating Platform.

Floating Platform.

The circuit was expected to receive another re-profile from the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix. In August 2020, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced plans to redevelop the Marina Bay Floating Platform into a community space centred on the city-state’s policy of National Service.

The floating platform has housed the Turn 16–19 series of corners since the circuit’s inception in 2008 and was expected to make way for the construction of NS Square in 2022. 

This re-profiling was not made in 2022, but it will be made before the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

Other circuits I visited