Oscar Piastri has employed the experience of Mark Webber as he prepares for his maiden Singapore Grand Prix.
The Marina Bay event is regarded as the toughest race on the calendar owing to the heat, humidity, and incessant nature of the circuit itself.
“Having Mark in my corner is very helpful,” Piastri said.
“Obviously he’s very big on fitness and that side of things. He’s also got a lot of experience here, so he’s been preparing me both mentally and physically for this race.
“We’ve done quite a bit of work, specifically around the temperature here.
“It’s been nice to have Mark in my corner for that specific aspect, as well as everything else he does.”
Webber raced in the first six editions of the Singapore Grand Prix, twice finishing on the podium.
It’s a punishing event that sees drivers lose, on average, more than three kilograms in body weight.
Adding further complexity to the event is the timezone.
Teams largely remain on European time for the night race, which sees them sleep at five o’clock in the morning and wake in the early afternoon before heading to the track.
“Because it’s a night race as well, it changes it a lot,” Piastri said of the Singapore schedule.
“The jetlag is actually, in some ways, not terrible, because the timezone we’re effectively on is not that different to Europe.
“It’s more the fact of waking up at one or two in the afternoon, you know, having six or seven hours of your day being at night instead; going for runs at 11pm or something like that.
“It’s that’s the part that sort of been the biggest challenge, I would say, but I feel like I’m well rested, well prepared now.”
Recovery time from the Singapore ordeal is limited, with the Japanese Grand Prix following a week later – an event that runs a more traditional schedule and therefore forces the F1 paddock to swap timezone.
Preparation ahead of the Singapore weekend is therefore crucial with much of the circus heading to Japan early to maximise the transition period.
It’s a busy period for the F1 paddock, with Piastri heading back to Europe following the Japanese Grand Prix to prepare for Qatar two weeks later.
“I’m not going home until Christmas,” he said when asked if he’d have an opportunity to head back home to Melbourne while F1 was in the region.
“The gap between here in Japan is very, very tight and then it’s a lot closer, but it’s still seven hours from here to Melbourne.
“For Qatar afterwards, I’ve got to go back to the UK and do my prep.
“So it would be nice [to visit Melbourne], but it still doesn’t quite work out.”
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