The third and final practice in Singapore felt less like preparation and more like a culmination, a weekend that started with jokes about Ferrari’s habits and ended with Red Bull rediscovering its ruthless precision. Every session this weekend has had a pulse of chaos running through it, and FP3 brought it all to the surface.
Context from the Chaos
The signs were there from Friday. In FP1, Ferrari managed to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, with Oscar Piastri dryly remarking that “Ferrari will invent mirrors one day, I hope.” It set the tone for a weekend defined by misjudgments and memes. FP2 then doubled down when Ferrari earned a €10,000 fine for an unsafe release that sent Lando Norris into the pit wall. That moment, immortalized online as “asserting dominance over papaya,” reminded everyone that at Singapore, even standing still can be dangerous.
By FP3, the laughter had turned to tension. The walls were closer, the lap times tighter, and the sense that everything was about to boil over hung thick over Marina Bay.
Max, Oscar, and George Lead a Grid on the Edge
Verstappen topped the final practice with a 1:30.148, just ahead of Oscar Piastri and George Russell. Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris completed the top five, followed by Sainz, Hadjar, Hamilton, Hülkenberg, and Leclerc. Less than a tenth separated the top five, absurdly close on a track this long, and a sign that qualifying could go in any direction.
Ferrari once again faded under the lights. Their early-session promise from Friday proved fleeting, their car looking twitchier as the track evolved. It’s become a familiar pattern: bursts of pace without follow-through, “glory laps” that never translate when it matters. The running joke now writes itself: Ferrari keeps catching strays in the highlight reels, while everyone else is catching laps.
Hamilton sat just behind the front-runners, still searching for that last tenth. If Friday hinted at progress, Saturday suggested a ceiling.
Red Bull’s Return to Form
After two sessions spent chasing balance, Red Bull finally looked comfortable. Verstappen’s FP3 lap wasn’t just quick, it was calculated, measured, and backed by the kind of composure that’s made him a three-time champion. The difference was clear in his close call with Franco Colapinto.
What could have been a crash was instead a masterclass in spatial awareness. Verstappen saw the overlap, anticipated the squeeze, and chose patience over panic, a reminder that he doesn’t just drive fast, he reads races before they happen. Red Bull has spent much of 2025 searching for that stability; in FP3, it was finally visible again.
Compared to Ferrari’s miscommunication-laden weekend, Red Bull’s precision felt surgical. It’s the same contrast fans noted all year: one team invents chaos, the other invents mirrors.
McLaren’s Internal Pressure Cooker
McLaren’s story has shifted from celebration to calculation. After topping portions of FP2 and looking poised for another front-row challenge, the papaya team now faces a strategic dilemma. With Verstappen’s resurgence, McLaren can’t afford to keep splitting its focus between Piastri and Norris.
The margin between them is slim, but the consequences aren’t. If Verstappen beats Norris here and closes the championship gap, McLaren’s reluctance to choose a lead driver could cost them both titles. The parallels to 2007 are uncomfortably close: two drivers evenly matched, a team walking the line between brilliance and implosion.
Piastri continues to show sharp one-lap pace and composure under pressure, while Norris still commands the garage politically and emotionally. Inside McLaren HQ, this isn’t about favoritism, it’s about survival. And the growing tension between the two could turn a dominant season into a strategic misfire if Red Bull’s comeback is real.
The Ferrari Fade
Ferrari’s downward trajectory was evident across all three sessions. FP1’s confusion, FP2’s fine, and FP3’s quiet fade reinforced that their operational errors now overshadow their car performance. They’ve gone from contenders to comic relief in record time.
There’s no denying the car has raw pace, but the consistency and decision-making remain absent. Even when Leclerc and Sainz look competitive, they rarely string together a full session cleanly, and Singapore, with its punishing walls and precision braking zones, exposes that fragility like nowhere else.
Liam Lawson and the VCARB Unraveling
Further down the order, Liam Lawson’s weekend became a nightmare. His Turn 7 crash, the second of the weekend, underscored the growing pressure on him and the VCARB garage. His car has become a patchwork of spare parts, more a Ship of Theseus than a Formula 1 machine.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Red Bull’s driver pipeline has turned into a chessboard of speculation: Tsunoda’s Honda ties, Hadjar’s momentum, Lindblad’s hype, Dunne’s shadow entry. FP3 became an open audition for who deserves a future in the system.
If there’s one lesson from this weekend, it’s that Red Bull’s academy breeds talent and tension in equal measure. Mekies and Permane want stability, but Helmut Marko’s brand of management doesn’t reward patience. In that environment, even a harmless crash becomes a political event.
The Field Compresses
Outside the headlines, Antonelli continues to impress with quiet maturity, Russell looks locked in, and Hadjar’s steady progress shouldn’t be ignored. Five cars within a tenth on one of the toughest tracks in the world is a rare equilibrium, and it’s turning every lap into a gamble.
Singapore doesn’t just punish mistakes; it amplifies them. This weekend, every team has flirted with disaster, Ferrari with its procedures, McLaren with its politics, and Red Bull with its rebuilding act. FP3 merely condensed it all into one 60-minute reminder of how fragile dominance can be.
The Tightrope Before Qualifying
As Marina Bay transitioned from day to night, FP3 captured the season in miniature: Ferrari’s fallibility, McLaren’s friction, Red Bull’s return, and a field so close that one tenth could flip the grid upside down.
If FP1 gave us humor, FP2 gave us chaos, FP3 gave us clarity, and that clarity is unnerving. Verstappen looks ready. McLaren looks nervous. Ferrari looks lost. And the rest of the grid looks like it’s holding its breath.
Singapore qualifying will decide whether this weekend becomes a story of redemption, rivalry, or ruin, but after the last three sessions, it already feels like all three.