Singapore tyres: C3, C4 and C5 with only 12 slick sets in the Sprint format
Pirelli has brought its three softest compounds to the Singapore Grand Prix: C3 as the hard, C4 as the medium and C5 as the soft. With the race hosting its first Sprint weekend, each driver gets 12 slick sets rather than the usual 13, and with only one practice session, today's FP1 on Friday, set management is a variable in itself.
The Sprint allocation
According to formula1.com's article of 7 October, Sprint regulations give each driver two sets of hard, four of medium and six of soft, plus six sets of green intermediates and three sets of blue full wets. The slicks add up to 12, one fewer than the usual 13 for a non-Sprint weekend. The compound range is the same as at last year's Singapore Grand Prix.
Pirelli's outlook: hard and medium as the reference, soft as the wildcard
Pirelli sees the hard and medium as the reference race compounds and expects a one-stop strategy to be preferred. It added that on Sunday the soft 'could receive greater consideration from more than one team'. It also noted that the Sprint format may encourage more C5 running.
Italian outlet Automoto.it's preview of 6 October goes further, writing that the C5 showed high pace and manageable degradation at Budapest, Monza and Baku, so it could be a tactical weapon in both the Sprint and the race. It also favours a one-stop, citing a long pit-lane loss and a likely Safety Car. That is Automoto's reading; I could not confirm that Pirelli's official material uses the same wording. The same piece says that in last year's race afternoon rain meant the grid started on mediums and softs before switching to hards.
Surface and weather: sources describe temperatures differently
Automoto says the Marina Bay surface has not been resurfaced, grip is medium-to-high and the track will evolve significantly over the weekend. It adds that rain showers could clean the track quickly. formula1.com's forecast of 7 October gives Friday a high of 33C and a low of 26C with a 30% chance of rain (afternoon and early evening), Saturday 40% (afternoon) and Sunday 40% (mid to late afternoon, with a possible pop-up shower or thunderstorm). Track temperature peaks around 55-56C before cooling ahead of Sprint Qualifying, qualifying and the race.
Automoto, by contrast, puts night-time track temperatures at 30-35C, which it says keeps the tyres in their operating window. The two figures may refer to different times of day, but neither source spells that out. This Sunday's race starts at 20:00 local time (12:00 UTC).
What to watch today
With a single practice session, how teams spend a limited pool of two hard sets and six soft sets in FP1 and Sprint Qualifying will offer clues to Sunday's strategy. If the rain forecast materialises, the six intermediate sets and three full-wet sets come into play as well.