Lawson disagrees with Hamilton and Verstappen: 'I quite like it'
Photo: Race Pictures
Kada Sárközi joined GPblog as an editor ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 season. He graduated with a BA in Sports Journalism in the UK and has covered Grands Prix and other F1 events live.
While Lewis Hamilton called for changes to the Marina Bay Street Circuit to give drivers a better chance of overtaking, Liam Lawson is against modifying the track.
After the Sprint, both Hamilton and Max Verstappen said that changes need to be made to the circuit to allow for more overtaking.
The Ferrari driver began: "I was just saying to Max, I think they need to change the track to maybe a longer straight somewhere in order to allow us to, for it to be truly a great racing circuit. Because I think it has the potential to be a great racing circuit. It's a great track to drive over a single lap in qualifying, but there literally just isn't many... There's like one place, I guess, really, that you could potentially get close to overtake.
"But then in other places, like 16, the crest in the middle of the track, sparks come up because the track isn't particularly flat. I don't know if it's for the rain or whatever it is, but I think there's some adjustments that can be made to make this 100% a great circuit.
Verstappen said: "I think we shouldn't host a Sprint where you can't pass. You know, you have tracks where you can race and can overtake, but of course, in some places you cannot pass, and we are going to have Sprints there also next year."
ADVERTISEMENT
He then added: "With how all the rules are at the moment, with our lovely batteries, yeah, it just doesn't do much. You can't even get super close or have a massive overspeed at the moment. So I, of course, fully agree we need to have a longer straight or more of a proper hairpin to overtake. But even with that, also we need a bigger delta on the straight."
Photo: Race Pictures
Lawson likes the Singapore track and doesn't want changes
Speaking to GPblog, among others, Lawson was asked about the world champions' verdicts. The Racing Bulls driver said: "Oh, I quite like it, to be honest. The racetrack's always been super fun to drive in, first, qualifying. Ultimately, in the race, obviously, it's hard to overtake. But it's always been hard to overtake."
The New Zealander added: "And I think, to be honest, it's one of the things, about these cars, it's not easy to overtake. Earlier in the year, there was a lot of overtaking. When you come to a race like this, there is not that much difference in terms of straight line performance. There are speed differences, but everyone is going at the relatively same speed, so it's very hard to race."
ADVERTISEMENT
Don’t miss GPblog in Google
Mark us as a preferred source and our articles will appear more often at the top of Top Stories.
Add as a preferred / source on Google