Lewis Hamilton believes that Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit needs a “longer straight” adding for it to become “a truly great racing circuit”.

Hamilton said he put that suggestion to Verstappen who agreed to that or a hairpin being required, even if the Dutchman did highlight Overtake Mode as another F1 2026 handicap at this overtaking-shy venue. Both drivers, alongside Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, also played down Marina Bay’s suitability as a Sprint venue.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen talk Singapore spectacle

It may be one of, if not the most demanding event on the F1 calendar, but the Singapore Grand Prix does not always throw up a huge amount of on-track passing.

Nonetheless, it was selected as a Sprint venue for 2026. That mini race proved eventful, though the extreme pre-race downpour played a helping hand.

Verstappen stormed to victory in the Sprint and on Grand Prix Sunday.

Hamilton, meanwhile, found himself in the thick of the rather limited overtaking action, losing out in the latter to Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on worn tyres.

After the Sprint, won by Verstappen from Hamilton and Leclerc, the trio were asked for their thoughts on Singapore’s future as a Sprint host.

In his answer, Hamilton put forward a request to improve the racing action in general.

“I don’t know. I mean, I love the race here. I really do love the race,” said Hamilton.

“I was just saying to Max, I think they need to change the track to maybe a longer straight somewhere in order to allow for it to be truly a great racing circuit.

“Because I think it has the potential to be a great racing circuit. It’s a great track to drive over a single lap in qualifying, but there literally just isn’t many… There’s like one place, I guess, really, that you could potentially get close to overtake.

“But then in other places, like [Turn] 16, the crest in the middle of the track, sparks come up because the track isn’t particularly flat. I don’t know if it’s for the rain or whatever it is, but I think there’s some adjustments that can be made to make this 100 per cent a great circuit.

“But whether they’re going to do that, I don’t know.

“But I thought it was fun. But if it was dry, that would have been probably the most boring race for you to have watched. It was the wet, the rain, that made it exciting. So, if you can always make it rain, then it’s always going to be a great Sprint race. But otherwise, it would probably just have been straightforward tyre management, everyone sticking behind each other.”

Verstappen united with Hamilton on tweaking the Singapore track once more, though felt that would not solve all life’s overtaking problems in this era of Formula 1.

“I think we shouldn’t host a Sprint where you can’t pass,” he said. “You have tracks where you can race and can overtake, but of course, in some places you cannot pass, and we are going to have Sprints there also next year.

“I’m fine. I mean, I just do my thing and then that’s it, right. But yeah, it’s not what I like.

“The track is great, but also the problem we have at the moment is with the Overtake Mode, it barely does anything here. You don’t really gain a lot on the straights. So also that, with how all the rules are at the moment, with our lovely batteries, yeah, it just doesn’t do much. You can’t even get super close or have a massive overspeed at the moment.

“So I, of course, fully agree we need to have a longer straight or more of a proper hairpin to overtake. But even with that, also we need a bigger delta on the straight.”

Leclerc added: “I agree. I don’t think it makes sense to have any Sprint races on city tracks in general.

“And we probably should use these Sprints to have them on tracks where it’s easy to overtake, where you can have a lot of racing action and it actually adds something to the weekend. Whereas here or Monaco, I don’t think it adds anything to the weekend.”

While Singapore did not feature on the expanded 10-sprint schedule for F1 2027, the maiden inclusion of Monaco proved polarising.