In the Heat of the Night: The 2025 Singapore Grand Prix

Here’s a fun fact to start us off: the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix was the first race ever in the history of Formula One to be deemed a “heat hazard” (a forecast of 31 degrees Celsius/88 degrees Fahrenheit and higher) by the FIA, and for once, it’s not the organization or its stewards making drastic decisions. The cockpit of a race car is a sweat-inducing environment, no matter the race. Singapore, an island city-state close to the equator, is hot and humid. 

The Marina Bay Circuit, much like the streets of Monte Carlo in Monaco, is a challenging track full of twists and turns that proves hard to overtake. Combine these two things, and hellish conditions are created for the drivers who undergo specialized training to tolerate the heat and develop the physical and mental endurance to finish the race. 

Nonetheless, the drivers pushed on, and there was much to gain (and lose) amongst the podium finishers of the Singapore Grand Prix. 

George Russell, who had pole position at Qualifying, managed to keep a steady pace ahead of Max Verstappen, who chased him the entire race despite struggling with his car. The Mercedes driver kept his pace and won the race, his second victory of the season, while the Red Bull driver finished in second. 

And then there was McLaren, back at it again with another show-stealing and eyebrow-raising moment that will ripple through the rest of the season. 

In the opening lap of the race, Lando Norris (who qualified P5) overtook Oscar Piastri (who qualified P3) with contact that could have easily caused Piastri to hit the wall and crash.

Here’s the thing: there was nothing inherently wrong with the overtake; it was a moment of classic, hard, aggressive racing - pretty standard stuff for motorsports. From the lens of McLaren’s team-first, driver-neutral philosophy, Norris’ move was very un-Papaya. 

As McLaren has been in the habit of adjusting their drivers’ positions for a while, Piastri understandably inquired on the radio about the positions. The team opted to keep them as they were. Piastri ended up finishing in fourth place, and Norris finished in third. The Australian did not hide his disappointment. 

Driver drama aside, McLaren, unsurprisingly, clinched the 2025 Constructors’ Championship title for the second year in a row after the race. Dominating the season with two drivers either winning or finishing on the podium in nearly every single race tends to lock in results like that - remember Red Bull in 2023?

All that being said, here are the post-race team standings: 

Constructors’ Championship Standings (Post-Singapore GP)

1. McLaren (650 points) 

2. Mercedes (325 points) 

3. Ferrari (298 points) 

4. Red Bull (290 points) 

5. Williams (102 points) 

6. Racing Bulls (72 points) 

7. Aston Martin (68 points) 

8. Kick Sauber (55 points) 

9. Haas (46 points) 

10. Alpine (20 points) 

Williams and Red Bull are the two teams that caught everyone by surprise. No one expected Williams, given their literal track record, to be the team that came on top of the midfield. Significant kudos to Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, as well as Team Principal James Vowles. 

Red Bull’s fourth-place finish looks like the biggest shocker at first glance, but when you look back at everything that’s plagued the team since March, this outcome was inevitable. Technical problems, combined with team roster issues, would do the trick. Max Verstappen literally carried that team on his back all season, and it shows. 

We find ourselves in the final act of the season with six races remaining, and it’s still too early to call the Drivers’ Championship title. Oscar Piastri continues to lead with 336 points, Lando Norris is in second with 314 points, and Max Verstappen remains in third at 273 points. Depending on how each driver fares in the following rounds, as all three are capable of winning or DNFing, the odds of any of the three winning are up in the air.

Now that the Constructors’ Championships are set for the season and after what happened at the race, it’s safe to say that the gloves will finally be off for Piastri and Norris, and that’s a good thing. Perhaps we’ll finally get proper, hard, aggressive racing between the two with little to no interference from the team. The next race, the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, makes it the perfect setting for a showdown between the duo and Verstappen, who continues to bring the fight to them. 

Coverage of the 2025 Formula One season continues with the United States Grand Prix from October 17th to 19th on Vintage & Coupe.