The 1600 lamps of over 3 million Watts in total on Sunday evening Singapore time might not be enough to shed light on the 14th Grand Prix of the F.1 World Championship and above all on the title ambitions of its main protagonists. The futuristic lighting system of the city track, almost an insult to the current times of widespread restraint since, in these days of the race, they keep it lit for interminable times, may not be enough to give a sure direction to the season. Because in the race (Sunday, starting at 14 pm Italian time) it could rain, and in those parts the rainfall often takes on the strength of the monsoon, with all imaginable consequences on the regularity and predictability of the technical values in the field. But also because Saturday's qualifying didn't and doesn't say everything.
He will start from the top of the lineup Hamilton, for the fourth pole position in a row signed McLaren, which says a lot about the current technical leadership in F.1 given that the British single-seaters have also won the last three races: Hungary, Belgium, Monza. The other McLaren qualified with Button in fourth place on the grid, also beaten at Williams by the surprising Maldonado (not so much rated in terms of racing, but who knows how to do it with street circuits) and by Vettel third with an at least strange Red Bull '. He had been impetuously fastest in all practice sessions from Friday to Saturday morning, Vettel, and it looked like a clear sign. Instead (also read separately the sensational performance of Hamilton, who trimmed half a second to all) the double world champion didn't seem entirely at ease at the key moment. Questions of tactics? It would seem not. Tire specifics? Perhaps yes, given that the difference in performance between the Pirelli soft and super-soft tires available in Singapore is considerable (over a second) but at the cost of very high consumption of the softer tyres.
And so, here is the fifth time in qualifying Alonso it almost seems like a miracle. Because he's light years ahead of his teammate Massa's time, who will start the race only 13th. But this certainly cannot be called an oddity. The masterpiece, Alonso did it, placing himself just over three tenths behind Red Bull and Vettel who, up until two hours earlier, seemed from another planet. Thanks to a Ferrari that is not irresistible but still capable of improving step by step, lap by lap. Which is a bit of a constant throughout the season. But thanks, once again, also to the Spanish champion, who now knows how much to defend his current leadership in the championship, it is necessary to economize and employ everything and always. Especially if your Ferrari isn't the best of the lot.
But as mentioned, it could rain in the race. And all the values just listed could become waste paper. In Formula 1, when it rains, it is man who wins, even overriding all technical-mechanical values. On street circuits, between the walls and treacherous chicanes, the rule takes on even greater weight. Perhaps this is what the Singapore grandstand awaits. In contrast with everything: with an F.1 almost always stingy with spectators in the stands; with an economic crisis that at almost all other latitudes causes the signs of almost opulent wealth of the Asian Monte Carlo to be hidden, and not shown off, with its sparkling lights and its satin-finished swimming pools at the top of the skyscrapers. Today's Formula 1 is chasing just that. In crisis of ratings and passion in the Old Continent, with the TV audience declining for a long time, it has gone on to make it big in the East. Where, between increasing wealth and a desperate desire to show it off, the Grands Prix are just the act that was missing.
Everyone on the track knows these considerations by heart. But 24 of them from tonight on are not interested at all. These are the riders waiting to start the Singapore GP. They are the ones who at 14 pm in Italy on Sunday will dive into a toboggan of asphalt and low walls and concrete and nets and floodlights, in pursuit of that tenth of a second that almost always marks the difference between winning, losing and getting hurt. Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel know this difference well: the only ones so far to have won in Singapore; musketeers competing for the 2012 title; and incidentally the main protagonists of the qualifications. They know the problem inside out, and they know how to make it the perfect storm. Especially if it rains. Especially if the monsoon comes.
