Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton unhappy with Singapore track changes

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Lewis Hamilton says the changes to the Singapore circuit "have made the track worse".

The section between turns 10 and 13 has been changed, with the primary reason given being to aid overtaking. The chicane at turns 11 and 12 has been reprofiled, with the right hander at Turn 11 staying tighter to the left of the road as it runs to a less tight Turn 12 and stays on the inside of the Anderson Bridge. From there, the left-handed hairpin at Turn 13 has been widened to allow a better chance of overtaking.

However, having driven the new section of circuit for the first time on Friday, Hamilton says he is not a fan.

"I don’t like it," Hamilton said. "They have made the track worse and it was fine the way it was before. This is now worse."

Fernando Alonso disagreed with Hamilton's view, saying the changes have two positive impacts on that section of track.

"I think the track should be safer now," Alonso said. "The purpose of the changes is that and it will probably give you opportunity to overtake now in Turn 13 as it is a very wide entry. We will see different race lines there on Sunday and hopefully we will see some action."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.