You can probably buy cider in the Somerset district of Singapore – if you look hard enough. It is a place where you can buy pretty much anything. Somerset has absolutely nothing in common with its namesake county in England. The name comes from Somerset Road which was named, supposedly, after some long-forgotten colonial chap, a descendant of the Dukes of Somerset, who did something noteworthy, which is now long forgotten. Well, maybe. There is a Devonshire Road nearby which suggests that it might have been some colonial administrator dreaming up street names thinking of the green and pleasant lands of faraway England.
It cannot have been much fun living in Singapore in the age before air conditioning was invented (1902). The British Empire seems to have survived with wallahs operating punkha fans and Gin & Tonic, the latter being drunk to ward off the evils of local parasites. The lemon or lime was added to help avoid scurvy.
Back in the day Orchard Road, as the name suggests, went through orchards where nutmeg trees and pepper vines grew. Initially both very profitable. Pepper was grown in conjunction with gambier, a product used for dyeing and tanning, with the residue of gambier preparations was used as manure for the pepper plants. This would die out because the cost of gambier production made it impossible to make a profit. Pepper tailed off and while nutmeg was a big success in the early years of the colony, overproduction led to less care being taken and in the 1850s a so-called “nutmeg canker” destroyed many of the plantations. Nutmeg production was finished by 1862 and the big estates were broken up and sold off for mansions.
The ratio of men to women in that era was around five to one and so Singapore became known as Sin Galore thanks to its opium dens and prostitution. Despite the agricultural failures, Singapore thrived because it was a well-located port, where steamers could pick up coal and from where tin and rubber (among other things) were exported. The city was built on British administration, Chinese labour and the natural resources of Malaya. It would become Britain’s primary outpost in Asia and the Empire would begin to wane after the British were chased out by the Japanese in 1942. After the war and peace were done it became the poster boy of Asia’s economic miracles. It quickly developed into an aviation hub, a concept copied years later by Dubai and Qatar. There were a few tourists but the city had a very austere image. But, it was along Orchard Road that billionaire One Beng Sen’s really began his hotel and retail empire and he would later play a big role in putting the city onto the global stage by bank-rolling the Singapore Grand Prix. He didn’t do it for the love of the sport. He did it for the money and it worked well. Since then the tourist industry as grown steadily.
Today, Somerset’s only apparent raison d’être is shopping. It is part of the endless shopping arcade that is Orchard Road. Still, Beach Road is no longer on the beach because land reclamation has moved the shoreline more than a mile. In Singapore they do stuff like that. In the days of Empire, the Marina Bay race track area was largely under water.
These days you can go from building to building in the shopping malls, without ever going out into the hot and sweaty world outside, which is also very useful when it rains, often in torrential fashion, as befits the tropical nature of Singapore. The place we stayed was close to the Somerset Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) station, but we didn’t know it was there until I stumbled across it while wandering through the shopping malls, not looking for anything, except a way to get home… although I did buy an adequate watch for $3 having lost my own in a rushed moment in the X-ray machine at the airport in Baku. We’ll see how long it lasts but thus far it’s doing fine…
The Singapore Grand Prix is one of F1’s weirder events, because it takes place at night. This was its unique selling point for years, but these days others have followed suit. This is all well and good for TV viewers around the globe, but for those on the ground it is a bit bizarre. Some try to spend their whole visit on European time, which is supposed to ease the problem. But that means it’s breakfast at lunchtime. You say “Good morning” in the middle of the afternoon. Lunch is at dinner time and the post-practice jibber-jabber takes place at about two in the morning. There is dinner at three (if you can find anywhere open) and it’s bed time at dawn. It’s a weird lifestyle, and if like many hardened travellers, daylight wakes you up you just have to survive a weekend of sleeping very little and having ice cream for breakfast.
As the race was back-to-back with Baku there was not much time for gossip to develop and much of the chatter over the weekend in Singapore was due to the FIA President’s moral crusade to stop F1 drivers swearing. I guess it achieved the goal of getting some publicity for someone who is hooked on being in the spotlight and keen to jump in front of the cameras at every opportunity. It is all harmless, but it does seem rather silly, particularly as one could hardly describe the federation as a missionary organisation. Has the current FIA President forgotten that he led a campaign to keep former President Max Mosley in office after the latter got caught with his trousers around his ankles? How is it that extra-marital adventures with hookers are more acceptable than swearing? Oh, never mind. One might call it hypocrisy but the truth is that Ben Sulayem needs to be in the spotlight like an Italian needs coffee. Let’s leave it at that. Silly, childish, attention-seeking and not good for the federation. One would think that the President would have some advisors who might tell him not to get into these messes, but either they don’t understand, or they dare not speak… When all is said and done, people respect the FIA less as a result of all this. Not more. We all know that the current incumbent will be re-elected in December 2025 if he does not screw up massively.
Best to keep a low profile between now and then…
The other story was Daniel Ricciardo. At the time of writing, his F1 career is still not officially over. But it will be in the next week or so. Daniel effectively said it with his late-race fastest lap. He’s out and Liam Lawson is in. This makes sense. As much as we all love Daniel, he has not delivered what he needed to deliver. He was taken on last year to perform so well with VCARB (at at time AlphaTauri) that it would put pressure on Sergio Perez to up his game. It hasn’t worked. Perez has been – at best – lacklustre this year. Red Bull is in the process of losing the Constructors’ Championship because of Checo’s poor performances and while his fans try to blame Red Bull for not giving him the right car, the fact that he needs a right car is condemnation enough. When he gets a good opportunity, as he did in Baku, he still managed to blow it with an ill-considered move that ended up with him and Carlos Sainz both in the wall. I know some will get upset at the suggestion that Perez is not the greatest ever star in the F1 galaxy, but that’s life. The numbers are all that matter. I absolutely do not understand the Red Bull logic of keeping him and losing the Constructors’ Championship as a result, but that is the choice they have made. Perhaps the sponsorship that follows him around really is worth more than the prize money lost, but this sort of thing damages team morale.
One interesting rumour in Singapore was that Perez and Red Bull have worked out a plan that will see him announce his retirement in Mexico, giving him a more gentle exit than being fired and will be less painful for Red Bull sales in the Americas. This would give Red Bull the chance to shop around for a new driver in 2025. Despite its expensive young driver programmes, Red Bull does not have someone ready to step up alongside Max Verstappen. Perhaps it will have if Lawson really shines (a la Colapinto) but there are already signs that Red Bull is out there shopping for the future. Christian Horner was talking the other day about George Russell, as he does not have a contract after the end of next year. There are still some who think that Verstappen might take off to Mercedes, but I think the price he will want to be paid for his services and the baggage he brings with him may make him less attractive than he might think. If it is down to money, Aston Martin has shown that it will pay whatever it takes to get anyone and so Max must be considered the next likely target, although he is going nowhere unless he can be convinced that the packages available in 2026 will be better than Red Bull. And we just don’t know. If you ask around at Red Bull, they seem to be very impressed with Oscar Piastri (as we all are) and they see chinks in the Woking armour, because Oscar’s manager Mark Webber is close to Red Bull and no doubt is intrigued by the question of how McLaren can keep two stars happy in the years ahead. That is a fair question.
The word in Singapore was that McLaren has told its youngster Gabriel Bortoleto, the Formula 2 Championship leader, that joining Audi might not be a great idea as there might be potential for him at McLaren in the future. The word in Singapore is that Audi will go for Valtteri Bottas as team-mate to Nico Hulkenberg in 2025. The drive is hardly likely to give either the chance of glory, but it is a job that pays well and it will keep Valtteri at the table. Sadly, it seems to be the end for Zhou, which is a shame because F1 could have used a good Chinese driver. Sadly he got himself into the wrong team.
One interesting rumour in the Singapore paddock was that Lewis Hamilton might end up sponsoring himself at Ferrari. OK, that sounds a bit odd, but in August the giant French Pernod Ricard company, the second largest wine and spirits company in the world, bought into a non-alcoholic tequila brand called Almave, which just happens to be owned by a certain L Hamilton, in league with the Copper firm, which used to manage him and a Mexican distillery called Casa Lumbre. The goal of the alliance with Pernod Ricard was to use the French firm for global distribution and to tap into its experience in building up new brands. The word is that Almave might be signed as a Ferrari sponsor next year.
I’ve never understood the concept of non-alcoholic alcohol, but in the day and age, I am sure it all makes sense to somebody somewhere…
The Singapore paddock was awash with delegations from various countries wanting to host F1 races, including a large group from Thailand, another from Rwanda and a third from South Korea. The Thai project is yet to be settled with a plan for the race to be around the royal palace in Bangkok now deemed to be unlikely, on the basis that when a senior royal in Thailand dies, the green in front of the palace is reserved for mourners for a full year. F1 wants to be in the Thai capital but there is also now a project for a permanent circuit at the U-Tapao Airport near Pattaya. There may also be other street circuits in the mix.
Thailand’s biggest problem, however, is political instability because the sport wants deals guaranteed for 10-years and the likelihood of the current Thai government lasting until this time next year is not huge.
The world moves ever onwards and F1 has lost a key behind-the-scenes figure in recent days with the departure of General Counsel Sacha Woodward Hill; she has been a big player in the sport for the last 28 years. There are few brains in F1 as sharp. She has been known to peel, boil and mash team principals as a light breakfast dish…
