Why F1 will make bizarre Singapore Grand Prix history this weekend

Formula 1 will make history at Marina Bay this weekend when Saturday's Sprint race becomes the first competitive session in Singapore Grand Prix history to be held in daylight rather than under floodlights.

Every grand prix held in Singapore since the event's debut in 2008 has taken place at night, with Marina Bay serving as F1's first-ever night race. 

That remains the case for this weekend's main grand prix, which is still scheduled for its traditional evening slot. 

But the sprint, set for 17:00 local time on Saturday, will run in daylight before darkness falls for qualifying later that evening.

The scheduling quirk stems from the need for a mandatory four-hour buffer between the start of the sprint and the night qualifying session that follows, while also allowing support categories to run their own events in Marina Bay's evening prime-time slot.

Lando Norris addresses unusual Singapore GP Sprint

Lando Norris does not expect the unusual timing to have much bearing on performance, telling select media, including RacingNews365, that Singapore's climate stays largely consistent whatever the hour.

"I don't think it changes too much, honestly, because it's not like it gets a lot colder or warmer depending on the time," said the McLaren driver.

"It's just always pretty hot here. So here, not so much [of a difference]. I think in other places, Bahrain, for example, it can be quite the opposite. 

"During the day, it's horrible in terms of the effect the temperature has, and in the evenings, the track gets a lot quicker, the car works worse, all of those things. So there's a big effect. Here, I think it's quite a bit smaller, and it's just more consistent."

"So, honestly, I'm going to go with I don't think there's too much of a difference between it. It's just visually things look different, but that's really the main thing."

Norris's comments echo the technical picture around Marina Bay's unusual conditions. Track temperatures at the street circuit are driven far more by the presence or absence of direct sunlight than by swings in the ambient air, which stays roughly stable between day and night due to Singapore's near-equatorial location. 

That is markedly different to a venue like Bahrain, where desert night races produce a sharp drop in air temperature once the sun sets, fundamentally altering tyre behaviour and track grip.

Teams are expected to treat Saturday's daytime sprint running with some caution when it comes to setup relevance, given that hotter asphalt and a dirtier track surface in sunlight typically behave differently to the cooler, more rubbered-in conditions under the floodlights come qualifying and the race itself.