Crunch time at Singaporeposted in F120 | 09 | 2010

    THE TWO MAIN title contenders, McLaren and Red Bull, head to the streets of Singapore this weekend knowing the outcome of Sunday's race will give a clearer indication of how the race for this year's Formula One World Championship will unfold.

    While the last two races at Spa and Monza required low downforce on the cars, the high-downforce needs of Singapore's street circuit will confirm whether McLaren has — or hasn't — made any significant ground on the Red Bull.

    The tracks in Belgium and Italy were, as Red Bull boss Christian Horner confirmed, "not ideally suited to our cars" but Singapore is expected to provide the ideal conditions for the RB6 to excel. And it's something which is concerning defending world champ Jenson Button.

    "Singapore will be a very interesting weekend because I think it'll give us a clearer idea of the destiny of the world championship," he explained. "The last time we were at a low-speed, high-downforce track was in Hungary back at the start of August; our car wasn't particularly competitive there, and maybe we haven't had a properly representative view of the top teams' relative pace because we've just visited two high-speed circuits.

    "But equally, a lot has changed since that race in Budapest, not least, some quite hefty revisions to the rulebook regarding bodywork flexibility and, additionally, a lot of work by the engineers at the McLaren Technology Centre to ensure our car is now better suited to slower circuits.

    "Singapore will be interesting for all of us; we'll not only get an idea of the speed of the Ferrari and Red Bull, but we'll get to see for the first time whether all our efforts over the past two months have helped put us back in the ballpark at high-downforce tracks." And Buttons views were backed by McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

    "It's the first race at a low-speed, high-downforce track since the Hungaroring back in August," Whitmarsh said. "It's also the first high-downforce track we've visited since the FIA tightened up its regulations on flexible bodywork, so it's likely to give us a much clearer idea of the respective pace of the leading teams after two less-representative events in Belgium and Italy.

    "This is a race the whole team looks forward to enormously, and we travel to Singapore with a number of new ideas to try out on our cars, feeling positive that we'll once again be in a position to race at the front."

    Jim McGill

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