Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix will adopt a new layout from 2023 onwards, with a multi-year redevelopment forcing a shorter lap.
The building of the NS Square, a “distinctive, attractive and flexible community and events venue” commemorating Singaporean national service that will replace the Marina Bay Float, means the section at the start of the third sector of the lap between Turns 16 and 19 – right-left-left-right, including a mini-tunnel – cannot be used.
Instead, that part will comprise a 400m straight, and the resulting shorter lap distance from 5.063km to 4.928km means the number of laps for the race will be set at 63 instead of 61.
Singapore GP says the construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, and has provided an estimated pole time through “simulations based on a 2020 F1 car” as 1m27.7s. The pole record for the current layout is 1m36.015s, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2018.
The track changes remain subject to FIA homologation.
The night race in Singapore, which debuted in 2008 but was absent from the F1 calendar in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before returning this year, has a contract running through 2028.
