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Lando Norris has opened up on the challenges of the Singapore GP, which is scheduled this weekend.
The McLaren driver said that the track would be more challenging than usual with the new cars. He also termed the track as one of the best for qualifying, telling Sky F1:
"I'm very excited. Singapore is one of my favourites of the whole season. Obviously, I only drove there in 2019. In terms of a qualifying track, it's one of the best of the whole season, night race and night qualifying. Extremely difficult track, it's going to be even more with these cars, as they are terrible over the bumps and bouncing and porpoising and all these things."
Norris noted that the new cars might make it tough to drive on the track. He also said that the 24 corners on the track could be challenging and rewarding at the same time. He said about the night race:
"In a way, it's not gonna be nice to drive, but at the same time it's one of the most difficult to put together; 24 corners or something, so nailing a lap here is extremely difficult. When you're closer to doing that, it's a cool achievement. It feels amazing. Just the whole event, the night race, Singapore, it's a whole lot of fun."
Norris drew comparisons with Monac but feels that Singapore is probably more bumpy, so there are more chances of things going wrong. He said:
"It's one of the most stressful tracks just because there are so many opportunities to crash and to make very costly mistakes. It's like Monaco in some ways but generally a lot more bumpy. It has more high speed sections, and it has a lot more corners, which means there are a lot more opportunities for things to go wrong when pushing at the limit."
Norris (88) is seventh in the driver standings, leading his outgoing teammate Daniel Riccardio (19) by almost 70 points.
Lando Norris explains how typical Singapore GP race pans out
Lando Norris said that a quintessential Singapore GP race is a slow burn at the start.
It picks up during the first pitstop and continues to ramp up till the end. Norris also talked about how the excess humidity can be a challenge. He said:
"The races normally go, like, a lot bit chilled at the start because it's difficult to overtake, so everyone kind of falls in line, wants to look after the tires. Then you get to the pitstop window, and all of a sudden, you go from maybe feeling a little bit relaxed to going all out like having to nail every lap, every corner. It's one of your few opportunities to maybe gain a position and that's where it gets stressful."
He added that the humidity and temperature makes it a challenging race for drivers.
"You're sweating because of all the humidity, the temperature," said Norris. "You tend to lose 3-4 kgs of fluid through the whole race so physically it's very stressful, and then you're pretty much racing to the very end; you're giving it all, and you're hoping for sometimes safety cars and VSCs advantage. It is just ... your head has to be so much in the zone, and as soon as you relax or lose a little bit of focus, before you know it, it's too late."
The 22-year-old driver last raced at Singapore in 2019, finishing seventh with McLaren.
