Singapore GP talking points

Will Singapore see the grid recast?

Exactly three years after Lewis Hamilton was finally persuaded to depart McLaren for Mercedes around the weekend of the 2012 Singapore GP, this year's race could also witness a series of momentous decisions and deals that have the potential to shape and define F1 for years to come.

The announcement of Renault's long-anticipated takeover of Lotus is thought to be imminent. Whenever it arrives, the news won't be a minute too soon with the team scheduled to be back in court at the end of the week to fend off a winding-up petition brought by HMRC over unpaid taxes.

Relief at official confirmation Lotus and Renault will be staying in F1 for 2016 and beyond is likely to be swiftly followed by a clarification of Red Bull's plans, with a deal for the former world champions to switch to Ferrari power in 2016 believed to be in place already. Toro Rosso will surely follow their parent team's lead and Manor, currently using 2014 Ferrari engines, are expected to then inherit the Mercedes units which the Lotus team will surely forsake as they become Renault's works outfit again.

All of which would amount to a substantial remoulding of the grid that would rip up the current pecking order, with five of the 10 teams directly affected eas power suppliers or engine customers.

A penny, too, for the thoughts of McLaren, if and when Red Bull transfer to Ferrari and bullishly plot a return to the front of the grid. It was as long ago as May 2013 that McLaren announced they would be reuniting with Honda, convinced that only a team with a premium partnership deal could expect to prosper in F1's new engine-centric era.

It's a decision which continues to define McLaren - and one which Red Bull have evidently drawn an altogether different conclusion from. PG

Records beckon for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton can equal Ayrton Senna's tally of 41 victories from 161 starts in Singapore this weekend and given his current run of form you'd be hard pushed to bet against the Mercedes driver.

Some will feel that equalling the record is meaningless given the dominance the Silver Arrows enjoy over the rest of the grid, but if you look back to 1988 the McLaren MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races that year and the MP4/5 10 of 16 in 1989. The difference, though, is that Senna was arguably pushed harder by team-mate Alain Prost than Nico Rosberg is currently pushing Hamilton.

However, a key point is the different ways in which they came into the sport. Hamilton walked straight into a championship contending McLaren in 2007 - had it not been for a points deduction for intra-team shenanigans in Hungary that season and then subsequently being stripped of all of their constructors' championship points over the 'Spy-gate' scandal, the team would comfortably have taken the title.

Senna on the other hand joined a Toleman team that had never won a race. In their five-year existence before being sold to Benetton, Senna was the only driver to take home silverware with three podium finishes. A move to Lotus brought a more competitive car, but it wasn't until he joined McLaren that Senna had a car capable of challenging for the world title.

Hamilton has therefore arguably had an easier pathway in his F1 career and had more races in a season to make the most of a dominant car. Nevertheless his wins tally remains an impressive achievement.

The world champion can also underline his blistering single-lap pace by equalling Senna's record of eight consecutive poles, which has stood since 1989, this weekend. WE

The inevitable Maldonado question

If you wonder how Nico Rosberg maintains his self-belief, considering the evidence that stacks in Hamilton's favour, then extrapolate wildly and wonder what goes on in Pastor Maldonado's head.

Seen as a liability, if not a laughing stock, by many, the Lotus driver somehow manages to ignore it all. Or at least he says he does. Whenever the Venezuelan's pranging starts to spiral once more, and he then blithely shrugs it off, one is minded of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, aka 'Comical Ali', Iraq's hapless propagandist during the 2003 war. 

Maldonado did have a purple patch of sorts, around about the time of the Canadian and Austrian GPs, but normal service has since been resumed, with early retirements in Belgium and Italy. As such, it really doesn't bode well for Singapore - until you remember that, with a counter-intuitive flourish so typical of the man, Pastor does actually tend to go well on street tracks and qualified second at Marina Bay three years ago.

So will he peg Romain Grosjean's qualifying record back to, uhm, 11-2 and last more than a couple of laps? Your guess is as good as ours. Though what seems more likely at this stage is that he won't be at Lotus in 2016. After all, he reckoned in Italy that he was staying put, even if Renault buy the team back. MW

McLaren's last chance to score points?

Fifty grands prix have now passed since McLaren's last win and that record doesn't look like changing any time soon. However, points could be on the cards in Singapore this weekend with the layout of the Marina Bay Circuit limiting the impact of the Honda power unit's performance deficit.

This race is perhaps McLaren's last chance to score points this season, but even then the DRS-assisted blast between turns five and seven could leave Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso sitting ducks. Couple that with the layout also helping the Renault-engined Red Bulls and Toro Rossos and the Woking squad's task is far from an easy one.

McLaren have scored points at just three races this year, with two of those occasions influenced by outside factors - Silverstone rain and a bizarre number of incidents in Hungary. F1's other street race, Monaco, was their only other points-scoring GP.

With Alonso a two-time winner of the race and Button a double-podium finisher, the drivers have pedigree in Singapore. It is just a case of their car and engine living up to the challenge - but don't expect McLaren's run without a win to end this weekend. WE

Upgrades a measure of Sauber's competitiveness

At the Italian GP, it was easy to wonder whether, when waking up on race morning and with their thoughts turning to the day ahead, Alonso and Button lay resignedly in their cots imagining the blue and yellow rear end of a Sauber drawing steadily - frustratingly - out of reach down Monza's long straights.

It's an image that sums up the strengths and weakness of both teams - more specifically the strength of Ferrari's power unit relative to Honda's, which in both cases has overshadowed the chassis side of things. While McLaren's MP4-30 might actually be pretty nifty - we'll probably never know just how nifty - any success Sauber have had has been put down to the contents of the boxes marked 'Maranello'.

So on a track where the engine side of the equation is so muted that even Red Bull fancy their chances of a podium, it's time to judge what improvement Sauber have made with their C34, which this weekend features a significant aerodynamic upgrade.

For a combination that's relied more on grunt than grip, it's interesting that Sauber have scored points at both street tracks so far, if that's what Melbourne really is. There's no doubting Monaco is, and Felipe Nasr backed up his superb fifth in Australia with a P9 in the Principality. But it's Marcus Ericsson's stock that's risen of late, with the Swede chasing his fourth straight points finish this weekend.

Another would certainly be welcome - both as a measure of the effectiveness of Sauber's upgrade, and also with a view to their battle against McLaren in the constructors' championship. Can they actually beat them? With seven races to go, it seems more and more likely. MW

Don't miss Sky Sports F1's exclusively live coverage of the 2015 Singapore GP. Race-day coverage begins on Sunday at 11.30am with lights out at 1pm. Watch the Singapore GP for £6.99 with NOW TV