WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Bad strategy strikes again in Singapore

Episode Date: October 16, 2026

Tune in to find out how Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead, and how Ferrari failed to match Red Bull under the lights of Marina Bay.

Welcome to Parabolica, the podcast, your one-stop shot for all things Formula One and motorsports. I'm Alessia and I'll bring you recaps and fast-paced features that transport you into the world of racing. With six races left this season, Mercedes's 20-year-old driver, Kimmy Antonelli, still leads the championship. And if things go his way, he could secure the win at the next race. Here's the moment Antonelli found out he could win it all in Austin. The next race in Austin, you could clinch the world championship. How does that feel? Can I? Really?

Well, let's not worry about that. Let's try to do the best weekend as possible and finish the job. He leads his teammate, George Russell, who had a tough weekend by 102 points. Now, let's get into this week's race. Before Singapore's iconic night race could begin, the drivers went out on track for Singapore's first ever sprint race, a short-form version that was held during the day on Saturday. George Russell took the lead from Red Bulls Max Rustappen at the start, but crashed out just two laps in. This is what Russell had to say after the crash.

That final corner after a great start. Yeah, I just misjudged it, to be honest. I came around the corner. I came on the throttle. I got more power than I was expecting from the battery. I went a little bit wide, and then I touched the white line. And, you know, number one rule in the rain is don't touch the white lines. and yes, it's a very, very silly mistake, overly confident.

Yeah, I just think it's my first crash of a year. It's annoying to happen from that position. Russell was the first in a string of DNFs. In the end, only 13 of the 22 cars saw the checkered flag. Then came Sunday's race. Verstappen was on pole with Ferrari's Charleclair and Lewis Hamilton behind him. Antonelli started fourth and Russell began in P-19 because of a grid penalty he received for replacing the car's power unit. Ferrari's strategic errors became the takeaway from Singapore,

though. At first, Leclair and Hamilton started out strong. They held onto their second and third positions at the start, but soon ran into tire degradation. Leclair managed to stay within a second of Verstappen, but his soft tires couldn't produce the same pace as his rival. Leclair dropped back and Verstappen extended his lead. Once the Ferraris and McLaren's pitted, Verstappen had almost a full pit stop, which is a little over 20 seconds between himself and the next On Hamilton's side of the garage, the team chose to switch to soft tires early in the race. Hamilton then began putting in strong lap times until LeClair pitted for mediums and came out right in front of him. Hamilton pushed for Ferrari to tell LeCler to move, but the team didn't.

Despite the strategy drama, though, the two kept up the charge for Verstappen when a virtual safety car slowed down the race. The VSC let the drivers make a shorter pit stop, since all the cars on track had to reduce their speed. Leclair headed into the pits for a used set of softs, but Hamilton kept going. Here's what the Ferrari team boss Fred Vassur had to say. We called him, we called them boss to Pid that it would have been P2P3 because we were a P2P3 on track and he missed the PITL3 and honestly it's a bit of a shame because he's losing a podium. While the team tried to figure out what to do with Hamilton, Leclair managed to hang on to P2 but finished nearly eight seconds behind Verstappen.

Hamilton's soft tires had nothing left to give after 44 laps, which let Antonelli and McLaren's Lando Norris close in and eventually overtake him. To make Hamilton's day worse, McLaren's Oscar Piastri also caught up and passed Hamilton on the last lap of the race. Here's what Hamilton said on the radio after finishing in P6. Sorry, boys, I'll need you down today with that strategy, lots of valuable points. I try to make up through the next one.

Great job with this stuff. I understood. Thank you, Luis. Thanks for tuning in to Parabolica, the podcast. In two weeks, we had to Austin, Texas for the United States Grand Prix, where my Parabolica co-editor will be on the ground. You can follow our substack

at Parabolicaf1dispatch.com for more content. Thanks again for listening to Radio Freehillsdale 101.7 FM. Thank you.