F1's first day of radio silence

The restrictions on radio communications originally planned for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix have been cut back, but during Friday practice the effects of what remain were clear.

Several times we heard drivers asking for specific information that the team is no longer allowed to supply, and being told to stick with their current programme and have a chat when they were back in the garage.

Exactly what isn't allowed is listed here, but the bottom line is that driving technique, hints about gears, throttle application etc are all no longer permitted, neither in practice nor in qualifying or the race.

Even though the change is not as sudden as it was planned to be, this will have an impact for the rest of the weekend.

GARY ANDERSON: "There are some grey areas in this regulation and it will take a few races for things to settle down.

Drivers are having to save their big discussions for the garages © LAT

"For example, you are allowed to give information about changing brake bias, provided it doesn't apply to a specific corner.

"But the timing of a specific instruction, where a driver is on the lap when they receive it, could tell them how to make a change for a turn.

"Drivers are allowed to make changes on their own initiative, so it will be interesting to see how things work in that regard.

"Perhaps the best way to solve all of this is to allow radio communication to the car only while it's on the start/finish straight, save for in cases of emergency. This would effectively be like a glorified pit board!

"As for how things affect the drivers, at the end of the day we talk about them as the 22 best in the world. And probably about 10 of them are very good! If they really needed a driver coach in their ear constantly, maybe they are not that good.

"It will take them a few races to get used to it and some might take a while before they can cope by themselves.

"The interesting thing will be how they react to instructions to achieve certain things. If you know you have to eke out tyre life, it will be entirely down to the driver to work out how to do it.

"And they can't have instructions related to specific parts of the track where they might be quicker or slower than another driver, or be told when to use overtake maps, so a lot of this will be down to what the person in the cockpit can see and understand.

Williams had a poor day © XPB

"That is what will be interesting in the race in particular - which drivers are best able to race best without having to run to their mums and ask how best to overtake someone!

"This means they will have to pay attention to things that previously they didn't have to.

"We saw a little of that today, but things will get a lot more interesting in qualifying and the race."

RAW PACE

As usual, Mercedes set the pace on the qualifying simulation runs, even though Nico Rosberg's supersoft run was interrupted by the red flag triggered by Pastor Maldonado's crash.

Lewis Hamilton's fastest time was only 0.133 seconds faster than Fernando Alonso's, with Daniel Ricciardo three tenths slower.

The most dramatic performance came from Williams. The team expected to have a tougher time on the streets of Singapore than it did on the long straights of Spa and Monza, but it was a surprise to see the fastest of its cars, that of Felipe Massa, almost 1.9s down.

GARY ANDERSON: "Williams did struggle for pace today, but this is a team that always does its homework on Friday and doesn't get overexcited about laptimes. But you do want to show your pace somewhere and the laptime didn't seem to be in the car today.

"But it's very difficult to judge. While this is not the best track for the strengths of the car, what is fundamentally a pretty good car should still be pretty good even on less suitable circuits. So it would be a surprise to see Williams not improving tomorrow.

"Ferrari is an interesting counterpoint. At Monza two weeks ago, its cars were fast in practice, but were much further off in qualifying even with Alonso wringing the Ferrari's neck. Alonso and Raikkonen were quick again today, but let's see how that translates to qualifying.

CAN RED BULL CHALLENGE IN THE RACE?

This was always going to be one of the circuits that offered Red Bull its best chance of taking the fight to Mercedes.

While its cars were never going to be faster on pure performance, if they could be within a few tenths on qualifying pace there was a chance to make things interesting on Sunday.

Red Bull is again best-placed to take a shot at Mercedes © XPB

The top 10 will likely all start on the supersoft rubber, which is as much as 2.5s faster than the soft-compound Pirellis. So the first stint will be key.

The data from the long runs on the supersoft rubber was patchy, but by analysing seven-lap runs from the leading nine teams, it gives some indication of how the cars compare in race conditions.

As usual, these runs are based only on relevant laps, with anomalies removed.

As is often the case, Ricciardo did a long run on supersofts that impressed both in terms of pace and range. This allowed him to outpace Rosberg's Mercedes.

But there is a caveat. Hamilton's run looked to be a couple of seconds faster than Rosberg's, but wasn't quite long enough. So this suggests that while Red Bull can be close, Mercedes still holds the aces.

Again, Williams looks unimpressive, but Massa's pace on the soft tyre looked far more promising.

RACE PACE

1 Red Bull (Ricciardo), 1m52.983s
2 Mercedes (Rosberg), +0.183s
3 Ferrari (Alonso), +0.234s
4 Force India (Perez), +0.559s
5 McLaren (Magnussen), +0.814s
6 Toro Rosso (Vergne), +0.868s
7 Lotus (Grosjean), +1.657s
8 Sauber (Sutil), +1.937s
9 Williams (Bottas), +2.249s

GARY ANDERSON: "Strategically, it looks like it will be a three-stopper, starting on the supersofts. Or, at least, it will be for those that make Q3.

"But what will be interesting is if people who qualify outside the top 10, and who can maybe start on the soft and stay out there, keep quicker cars behind once they pit.

"There's also the possibility of someone managing a two-stopper. If anyone can, there is a good chance to gain track position, and even if you're having to save the tyres dramatically, with passing tough here there's a good chance of staying ahead of quicker cars.

"This could potentially make Singapore one of the most interesting races of the season strategically."