Fernando Alonso turns Lewis Hamilton’s difficult Singapore race into a cheeky F1 defence

Fernando Alonso used old Formula 1 rival Lewis Hamilton to make a light-hearted point about overtaking at the Singapore Grand Prix, arguing that the Ferrari driver’s dramatic late-race decline showed that passing at Marina Bay is still possible.

The Aston Martin driver defended the nature of the street circuit after another Singapore race in which overtaking opportunities were limited. Alonso acknowledged that track position remains particularly important at Marina Bay, but pointed towards both his own history at the circuit and Hamilton’s difficult closing laps as evidence that the race is not completely devoid of position changes.

Fernando Alonso points to Lewis Hamilton in Singapore GP defence

The Briton had started the race on Medium tyres and initially attempted to make a one-stop strategy work. Ferrari switched him to a used set of Softs on lap 18, leaving the seven-time world champion facing an exceptionally long final stint.

The key moment arrived during a Virtual Safety Car period, when Ferrari asked Hamilton to pit again. Instead, he elected to remain on track and try to make the strategy work, a decision for which he later accepted responsibility after the Singapore Grand Prix.

That left Hamilton completing 44 laps on the used Soft tyres. Although the strategy temporarily elevated him to second place during the VSC period, his ageing rubber eventually left him vulnerable as the race approached its conclusion.

Kimi Antonelli passed the Ferrari on lap 54. From that point until the chequered flag at the end of lap 62, Hamilton lost 28.615 seconds to the Italian, an average of 3.576 seconds per lap, before eventually finishing sixth. The broader sequence of strategy calls and late-race position changes can also be seen in our detailed Singapore Grand Prix race analysis.

Alonso, who finished 15th for Aston Martin, used Hamilton’s late losses to add a humorous edge to his defence of the circuit. He argued that there was little that could realistically be changed about Marina Bay and noted that qualifying has historically determined much of the outcome at street circuits.

The Spaniard suggested that this characteristic was hardly new to Formula 1, recalling eras involving Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher as examples of how important starting position has traditionally been on street tracks.

Alonso recalls his 2010 Singapore victory

Fernando Alonso also drew on his own Singapore Grand Prix history to explain why he considers track position part of Marina Bay’s fundamental character. He recalled his 2010 victory, when he estimated that his Ferrari faced an eight-tenths performance deficit to Red Bull but still secured pole position before keeping Sebastian Vettel behind throughout the race.

In Alonso’s view, that illustrated why a lack of frequent overtaking should not necessarily be treated as a problem unique to the current generation of Formula 1 cars. He maintained that little could be done to alter the basic nature of the venue, while stressing that some overtaking had still taken place.

Hamilton then provided Alonso with an obvious recent example. The two-time world champion explained that he had been watching the circuit screens and noticed the Ferrari losing several positions late in the race, jokingly using those moments to demonstrate that Marina Bay did indeed contain places where a driver could be overtaken.

Aston Martin leaves Singapore with power unit concerns

Alonso’s own Singapore weekend was complicated by Aston Martin’s difficulties with the drivability of its Honda power unit. The AMR26 struggled in that area throughout the event, while a turbo problem detected after qualifying led to the Spaniard taking a new unit.

Reflecting on the weekend, Alonso acknowledged that Aston Martin had learned in difficult circumstances that its problems had not yet been completely resolved. He indicated that something within the power unit had failed to perform as expected and that the team still needed to establish the reason.

With several challenging races approaching, Alonso identified Mexico as a potentially more favourable venue because of its very slow-speed corners, while also looking towards Las Vegas and other street circuits. However, he emphasised that Aston Martin first needed to address its drivability and turbo-lag issues.

According to the former Ferrari driver, several unresolved areas were costing the team lap time, with the Singapore weekend exposing those weaknesses particularly clearly.