Marina Bay Street Circuit, also known as Singapore Street Circuit, is a racing venue that hosts one of the Formula One World Championship races - the Singapore Grand Prix.
Location: | Downtown Core and Kallang, Marina Bay, Singapore |
Circuit Length: | 4.940 km (3.070 miles) |
Number of Turns: | 19 |
Record Lap: | 1:34.486 - Daniel Ricciardo (2024) |
Opened: | 31 August 2008 |
Architect: | Hermann Tilke / KBR, Inc. |
Marina Bay Street Circuit is a street circuit situated around Marina Bay, Singapore. It has an FIA Grade 1 license, which means that the circuit meets the highest standard of safety, infrastructure, layout, and other facilities.
The construction of the actual circuit for its first Grand Prix began in August 2007, and the inaugural race - The Singapore Grand Prix took place in September 2008. Not being a dedicated circuit purpose-built for racing, the circuit surface was criticized for being excessively bumpy.
The Singapore Grand Prix hosted at the Marina Bay Street Circuit is known as one of the most physically challenging races of the season. The hot and humid conditions combined with the high degree of concentration required to test every single driver yearly.
Lewis Hamilton commented the circuit is unexpectedly physical and that it requires double the amount of energy over a single lap compared to Circuit de Monaco. George Rusell can attest to this, crashing his Mercedes in the last lap of the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix and losing his third-place podium position.
Marina Bay Street Circuit holds a unique record for at least one safety car appearance in every single race of the Singapore Grand Prix to date. The event has been held every single year since 2008 except for the years 2020 and 2021, when Singapore Grand Prix was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Notable also for holding the first-ever Formula One night-time event, Marina Bay Street Circuit has been designed by KBR’s modification of the original circuit proposed by popular Formula One circuit designer Hermann Tilke.
The original layout of the Marina Bay Street Circuit has been designed as the circuit with the highest amount of turns (23) in the Formula One calendar. However, since then, the record has been broken by the Jeddah Corniche Circuit hosting the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.