The British driver George Russell will compete on the streets of Singapore this weekend in his final, slim chance to close the gap with his teammate from Mercedes, the Italian Kimi Antonelli, during a Formula 1 Grand Prix considered "the most difficult of the year." The race will take place in the city at night, under the humidity of Southeast Asia, on a circuit built from the closed-off arteries of the upscale Marina Bay business district by the sea. The event is known for its challenging conditions, with narrow streets and high temperatures making it one of the toughest races on the calendar. The Ferraris of the seven-time world champion British driver Lewis Hamilton (currently in third place in the Drivers' Championship) and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (in fourth place) have 151 points behind them in the Constructors' Championship after seven of the final seven Grand Prix of the season. The last two races, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, will take place according to the geopolitical situation in the Gulf. A week after his first victory of the season in Malaysia, which also hosted the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Dutch driver Max Verstappen (currently in sixth place) will have to confirm his performance with his revitalized Red Bull team. In front of the press on Thursday in Singapore, neither Antonelli nor Russell made any predictions. The 28-year-old British driver, who won in Azerbaijan two weeks ago ahead of Verstappen's Red Bulls and the French driver Isack Hadjar, but who withdrew from Malaysia, even looked dejected. His 20-year-old Italian rival has an 84-point lead. Antonelli spoke of a weekend "full of challenges," particularly the fact that, apart from the single practice session on Friday, the qualifying session, the sprint race on Saturday, and the Grand Prix on Sunday (62 laps of 4.927 km) will take place in the late afternoon and evening in the island-state located near the Equator. It's "a track where it is difficult to overtake" with few straights and corners bordered by safety walls, said the young prodigy, who is equally at ease behind the wheel as he is in front of the media and who could be the first Italian world champion in over 70 years, following the two titles of Alberto Ascari in 1952 and 1953. Adding to Russell's misfortune, he will start Sunday's race from the grid with at least ten penalty places due to a power unit change. He indeed suffered a mechanical failure in the final laps in Malaysia, and Mercedes had planned to wait until the end of the season to reach its quota of changes for the electrical and thermal power unit parts. By advancing this modification, the regulations require that the team receive a penalty. A small consolation, Russell explained, with a serious face, was that he would be driving the Mercedes model that had won him the race in Azerbaijan and not a version with some aerodynamic improvements that had cost him in Malaysia. Mercedes F1 director Toto Wolff promised him "the best possible car and the opportunity to counterattack" in Singapore, one of the wealthiest countries in the planet south of Malaysia. It is also one of the hottest and most humid cities in the world, also polluted by a haze caused by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. For French Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, the Singapore Grand Prix is by far the most physically demanding race of the year. "You really feel this humidity (...) and I try to spend more time outside to get my body used to handling all the hydration," he explained to three French media outlets, including AFP. His compatriot Esteban Ocon, who was recently released at the end of the season by the American team Haas — supported by Toyota and powered by Ferrari — and who does not have a seat for 2027, said he was "not eager to race in the heat," at 33°C and 80-90% humidity. "It's going to be tough," he admitted. Most drivers, however, refuse to wear a cooling vest, a technology they consider not yet developed. Verstappen even finds the innovation "stupid."