Ferrari, Mercedes on opposite ends in Singapore tyre picks

The race marks only the third appearance of the pink hypersoft tyre, following Monaco and Canada.

However, while at those two events the compound was matched with the supersoft and ultrasoft, Pirelli chose the soft and ultrasoft this time. The same combination will also be used at the following race in Russia.

For Singapore Mercedes has taken a conservative route, with both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas going for three sets of softs, four sets of ultrasofts, and only six sets of hypersofts.

Ferrari in contrast has given Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen only one set of softs, along with three of ultrasofts and nine of hypersofts.

Other teams showing a bias towards the softest compound by taking nine sets are Force India and Haas, while Renault, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Sauber have gone for eight sets apiece, and Red Bull and Williams seven. Only Mercedes has chosen six sets.

Along with Mercedes, others to stock up with three sets of softs are Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and Sauber, the latter only with Charles Leclerc’s car.

Joining Ferrari on just one set of softs are Toro Rosso, Haas (with Kevin Magnussen) and Williams (with Sergey Sirotkin).

Singapore is especially challenging for the teams because of the way track temperature evolves, with FP1 and FP3 both running in sunshine, and qualifying and the race at night. The rear left is the most stressed tyre on the 23-corner track.