Singapore’s Marina Bay street circuit will be altered temporarily for 2023 due to construction of a new events venue at a section of the track.
A multi-year project to develop an entertainment and stage area will begin next year, meaning four corners will not be used when Formula 1 returns to Singapore in 2023.
The run from Turns 16-19 is made up of two chicanes and sees the cars run underneath the famous grandstand, with the section famous for being the scene of Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash in 2008.
As that section of track becomes unavailable there will now be a faster run for the drivers when they exit the right-hander at Turn 14, with a new 379.3 metre straight towards the chicane of Turn 16 – previously Turn 20.
According to early simulations, the lap time will fall dramatically compared to the previous layout with an estimated lap of 1m27.7 seconds.
Kevin Magnussen holds the lap record around the Marina Bay street circuit of a 1m41.905 from the 2019 event, some 14 seconds slower than the planned changes.
The revised layout will also reduce the track length to 4.928 kilometres and see the number of laps for the race go up from 61 to 63.
Despite local architects finalising the modifications and F1 approving the changes, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council is still yet to give the go ahead.
Singapore is expected to revert back to the original layout in 2024 once the NS Square is complete.
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