Who's going to win under the lights ?

The pieces are set and the players in position; it’s time to wave goodbye to Europe and start the long haul to the end of the season.

All that’s left now are the six fly away races, starting this weekend with the night race in Singapore, and it promises to be a belter. Formula 1 looks absolutely stunning at night as the cars spit and snarl through the city street, if there was ever a circuit made for HD television this is it. It’s not as tight and twisty as Monaco, it’s sort of technical like Valencia but with more room for the cars to actually race.

Given that it’s a little bit Monaco and a little bit Valencia, you’d have to have Alonso as favourite. Yes I know Redbull like these circuits, but their alternator doesn’t.

Newey appears to have packed the pesky thing too close to the engine and it’s melting the internals on these stop start technical tracks. So they might be fast round here but I think it’s a bit of a wing and a prayer to get them to the end. Renault say they know what the problem is and are pretty sure it’s all fixed, but short of cutting a big hole in the body work to cool the unit, I think it’s too late in the season to be repackaging the important bits under the bodywork.

So Alonso for the podium then, but what about the boys from Woking who have won the last three races ?

Well McLaren look like they have the car on song again, if not both of their drivers. Contract negotiations with Lewis seem to be coming to some sort of conclusion; most people seem to think he’d be a fool to leave a winning team for the money on offer at Mercedes. I certainly do, he can’t be short of a bob or two, so why go to a team that even with a seven times world champion can’t string a coherent challenge together. Indeed why go to a team that isn’t Ferrari or one with Adrian Newey on the books ?

The whole thing is rumbling on in the background, with reports of Lewis being given the cold shoulder by Jenson and the two driver’s teams avoiding each other. Sometimes that works for a team, a bit of needle sharpens the will to win after all, usually though it ends with one driver in the wall and the other throwing his toys out of the pram in front of the world’s media.

Of course whilst Lewis is talking about leaving McLaren, the media is talking about who will replace him. The odds on favourite is Perez, with a dawn raid before Ferrari sign him up.!

What normally happens the moment Ferrari say “oh he’s too young and inexperienced for us. We don’t want to sign him” is that they have already signed him in principle and they’re just haggling over the clause that says ‘Alonso is faster than you buddy’

As usual Lotus have been talking their race up, again similar to Valencia where Grosjean went well. But it’s all comes down to that Renault engine and its dodgy alternator; will it last ?

I think this could be a straight brawl between the Ferrari and McLaren boys. If the Renault alternator holds together the Redbull will be fighting for pole and a podium, Lotus best of the rest and Mercedes nowhere … do you hear that Lewis … absolutely nowhere near the sharp end of the grid. Do you see them ? … No ! Because they so far back

mmmwwhahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA

so yeah, anyway, update your predictions before Friday and remember that Grosjean is back in the mix again.