Prince William revealed he met with Ross Kemp recently and confirmed “he was really jumpy” as he opened up on his family’s love for The Celebroity Traitors on The Graham Norton Show
(Image: PA Wire)
The Prince of Wales has revealed his family’s love of The Celebrity Traitors, adding that he even touched paranoid faithful Ross Kemp “to see what reaction I got from him”.
The EastEnders star had been on alert about being murdered in plain sight through touch since the first episode of the BBC One series. The paranoia proved justified in Thursday’s episode, when he was indeed murdered in plain sight by traitors James Acaster and Maya Jama.
But instead of touch, he was murdered by yawning and inhaling a poisoned perfume. Discussing the star-studded programme during a surprise appearance on an Earthshot Prize edition of The Graham Norton Show, William said: “I love it, the family love it. Charlotte and Louis are obsessed with it. It’s really good telly.
“I saw Ross Kemp the day after the first episode and I couldn’t help but try – in the most appropriate way – to touch him to see what reaction I got from him. Turns out he was really jumpy!”
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Asked how he switches off, he said: “It is music and film. I love getting immersed in deep-thinking films. I like action films too, but I like something a bit different. I’m a big fan of everything Christopher Nolan does. His films are fantastic – The Dark Knight series is psychologically dark and deep and I absolutely love that.
“He takes concepts that are completely out there and makes them incredibly entertaining.”
William joined Cate Blanchett, Robert Irwin and Hannah Waddingham on the chat show to gasps from the audience to speak about the environmental award, which connects all four guests.
Blanchett is an Earthshot Prize council member, Irwin is a global ambassador for the prize and Waddingham hosted the 2023 Earthshot awards in Singapore.
Mumbai will stage the Earthshot Prize next month where the future king will meet Bollywood stars as he learns about India’s hugely popular film industry, play with cricketing royalty and preside over the ceremony awarding £5 million in prize money.
Saira Hayati and her daughter wanted a ‘better lifestyle’
Saira Hayati and her daughter on a boat trip in Malaysia(Image: Saira Hayati/SWNS)
A British mum moved abroad to afford a better lifestyle and said she saves £2,141 a month as well as enjoying weekly £20 massages, polo lessons, a cleaner and a pool.
Saira Hayati, 50, from Gravesend, Kent, relocated in 2024 after years of navigating financial uncertainty and learning to prepare for economic downturns. The mum-of-five said her monthly household budget in the UK was around £3,612 to £3,929 and stretched to the rare massage, a gym membership and access to a lake in the summer.
She now estimates she spends £1,788 to £1,874 a month in Melaka, Malaysia, and gets more luxuries – including a weekly massage and a cleaner. Her plan was originally to retire, but she has found work doing social media and doesn’t stress about inconsistent earnings as she doesn’t “need” it.
Saira, a content creator and entrepreneur, said: “The problem is in England no matter how much you earn it’s not enough. I’m swimming, juicing, enjoying the sunshine. I feel healthier, happier, and more relaxed. My kids have said they noticed a difference.”
About more than money
The move has been more than just money saving for Saira, who is now embracing a new chapter with her youngest child while working to rebuild connections with her older children after spending most of her time focused on her career. Her other children are still living and working in England.
After a 22-year marriage ended, she found love again in Malaysia and remarried four months ago. The former director of a national mortgage brokerage says the lower cost of living has given her more freedom to enjoy everyday luxuries without the same financial pressure she experienced in England.
She said: “Over here for me to have a two-hour massage is £20. So I go for massages every week.”
Her Malaysian monthly budget includes £150 for a cleaner, £300 for her daughter’s online tuition and £87 for weekly massages. She pays £20 a month in local charges, compared with £280 in UK council tax, while her electricity costs around £100 a month – three times less than her gas and electricity in England.
Her water bill is just £5 a month, compared with £150 in the UK, while her mobile phone costs £10, rather than £50. Saira spends around £639 a month on eating out and takeaways in Malaysia, covering breakfast and dinner for three every day rather than food shops.
In England takeaways and eating out was a treat, at £100 to £200 per month. Buying her 3,700sqft five-bedroom, six-bathroom, home outright in Malaysia cost her £165,000 and Saira benefited from a better exchange rate in December 2023. In Kent, her monthly mortgage was £1,400 a month for a four-bedroom detached house.
How Saira’s outlook was shaped
Saira’s financial outlook was shaped by experiencing four major recessions and the impact of the 2008 crash on her property management business. At the time, she was working as a director of a property management agency and had a professional portfolio of 350 properties, alongside around ten properties in her personal portfolio. She spoke about the fear of falling into negative equity and having to “tighten the purse strings” on her family’s finances during the credit crunch, including pulling her children out of private school.
She said: “The cost of living is making people squeezed from every angle. The burden is heavier now than it was and people just aren’t in a position to do what they strive to.”
She said the pressure facing households in England had become increasingly difficult, regardless of how much people earned. Saira began selling properties from her personal portfolio before leaving the UK, eventually putting more than £100,000 into a Singapore vault with gold to give her family a financial safety net.
The fund means she no longer feels compelled to keep earning more money simply to feel secure. She said the £100,000 was enough to protect her family for years in an emergency living in Malaysia.
She said: “I’m comfortable in the sense that I don’t need any more emergency fund and I don’t need to earn any more than I need.”
For Saira, moving abroad was not just about cutting bills, but about finding somewhere she could enjoy a better quality of life and spend more time with her family without constantly worrying about money.
She said: “I’ve positioned myself somewhere that I know I can have a decent lifestyle that isn’t going to cost me a lot of money. That’s the kind of guidance I’m giving people having done it myself.”
Saira’s costs
Mortgage/rent
UK: £1,400
Malaysia: £0 – home owned outright
Council tax/local collection charge
UK: £280
Malaysia: £20
Service charge: grounds, pool and gym
UK: Not included
Malaysia: £30
Gas and electricity
UK: £300
Malaysia: £100 – electricity only
Water
UK: £150
Malaysia: £5
Internet
UK: £50
Malaysia: £50
Mobile phone
UK: £50
Malaysia: £10
Groceries
UK: £650 to £867
Malaysia: £80 – fruit, juicing supplies, and toiletries
Eating out/takeaways
UK: £100 to £200
Malaysia: £639 – breakfast and dinner for three daily
Fuel
UK: £217
Malaysia: £87 to £173
Car costs: insurance, tax, service, repairs
UK: £200
Malaysia: £110
Home insurance
UK: £75 – buildings and contents
Malaysia: £20 – buildings
Cleaner
UK: Not included
Malaysia: £150
Child tuition
UK: £0
Malaysia: £300
Gym
UK: £40
Malaysia: Included in service charge
Clothes, toiletries, haircuts and dental
UK: £100
Malaysia: Toiletries above; other costs not totalled
China is increasing its gold reserves in a bid to reduce its dependence on US dollar assets and protect against financial and geopolitical risks, analysts say, while households are turning to the precious metal amid uncertainty over the domestic economy.
The People’s Bank of China reported buying gold for a 23rd consecutive month in September, when the country’s central bank also made its largest monthly purchase in nearly three years. The sustained buying points to a longer-term effort to spread risk associated with its vast reserves, experts say.
Among concerns is high US debt and Western governments’ freezing of assets, which has highlighted the inherent risk in holding money overseas, particularly for emerging market and Global South economies. Gold bought and stored domestically offers protection against that risk because access does not depend on the will of another government.
But central bank buying and household demand for gold in China have different drivers. While Beijing is managing its financial exposure, private investors are seeking somewhere to preserve their savings. Here is what we know.
How much gold has China bought?
China’s central bank added approximately 23 tonnes of gold in September, bringing its reported holdings to about 2,410 tonnes, according to the World Gold Council. That was its largest monthly purchase since October 2023. Gold accounted for 8.5 percent of China’s total official reserves at the end of September, compared with 5.5 percent at the end of 2024.
Reserves are assets central banks hold to ensure they can meet international payments and respond to financial disruption. They usually include foreign currencies, foreign government debt and gold.
Private demand for gold within China has also risen, with purchases of gold bars and coins 28.4 percent higher in the first half of 2026 than during the same period last year, according to the China Gold Association. The buying of gold has continued amid falling prices, with gold down around 8.5 percent over the month.
The World Gold Council attributed the decline in gold prices partly to a stronger dollar and higher returns on US government debt. With interest rates going up in an attempt to curb inflation, these investments are attractive for buyers as they pay interest, making them more attractive to private investors than gold, which does not.
Why is China buying more gold?
A key objective is to reduce dependence on US government debt, known as Treasuries, according to Thu Lan Nguyen, head of commodity research at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
China holds substantial reserves in dollar-based assets and, therefore, buying gold reduces its exposure to decisions taken in Washington. “China’s gold purchases are part of a broader effort to make its reserves more resilient,” Nguyen told Al Jazeera.
The freezing by Western countries of roughly $300bn in Russian Central Bank overseas assets following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 demonstrated how reserves held abroad can quickly become inaccessible.
The concern for China may be that a future confrontation with Washington could expose some of its overseas assets to similar restrictions. “Gold held domestically has a crucial advantage in this respect: it does not represent a claim on another country and is therefore much less exposed to sanctions or asset freezes,” Nguyen said.
“I would interpret it primarily as risk management,” she added, pointing to increased geopolitical tensions and economic and fiscal risks.
America’s rising debt, which hit $40 trillion for the first time in history earlier this year, adds another source of uncertainty. In February, the US Congressional Budget Office projected that federal debt held by the public would rise from 101 percent of the size of the US economy in 2026 to 120 percent in 2036. That provides context for concerns about Washington’s ability to repay that debt going forward should an economic crash occur. Much of this debt is held by China. Gold, therefore, offers a less volatile and risky asset to hold.
Chinese households have different motivations for buying gold. When confidence in other investments weakens, gold can become more attractive as a way to hold savings. “Strong demand for gold can partly reflect a search for alternative stores of value,” Nguyen said.
The World Gold Council has identified weak Chinese share markets as one factor supporting domestic demand for gold, while its property market is burdened by heavy borrowing and overbuilding, contributing to a fall in housing prices, making it a poorer investment.
What this means for the US dollar
Analysts warned that China’s increased buying of gold does not signal an imminent end to the dollar’s global dominance. “I would be cautious about describing this as a major shift away from the dollar,” Nguyen said. “The dollar remains by far the dominant global reserve currency.”
But a gradual shift could still matter if China and other central banks put more of their new reserves into gold, buying fewer US assets than they normally would. That could weaken one source of demand for US government debt. But the effect would depend on how widely and quickly the shift developed.
“The key point is, therefore, that this is likely to be a slow diversification process rather than a sudden abandonment of the dollar,” Nguyen said. She added that the consequences for the US economy would remain limited unless the trend broadened and accelerated substantially.
Central banks also need readily available foreign currency to support international payments and the dollar remains central to those transactions. So gold can provide financial protection, but it cannot directly replace all the functions of dollar reserves.
Who else is buying gold?
China is part of a wider trend, particularly among central banks in emerging economies, Nguyen said.
“The trend is particularly visible among emerging market central banks,” Nguyen said. “But sanctions are only part of the story.”
Poland has also become a more prominent buyer. Its central bank purchased 31 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026 and another eight tonnes in July, according to the World Gold Council.
Large holdings do not necessarily indicate recent purchases. India, for example, confirmed in June that its physical gold stock remained unchanged at about 880.5 tonnes. India’s gold reserves have changed little since mid-2025, according to the World Gold Council. It bought about four tonnes in 2025, down from 73 tonnes in 2024.
Despite China’s sustained buying, its reserves remain far smaller than those of the United States. Its holdings of about 2,300 tonnes at the end of 2025 amounted to less than one-third of the US stockpile of approximately 8,133 tonnes.
Move comes as haze from Indonesian fires makes Singapore and Kuala Lumpur the world’s most polluted cities.
Published On 13 Oct 202613 Oct 2026
Firefly, a Malaysian low-cost airline, has extended the suspension of its flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore through Wednesday as smoke from fires in Indonesia continued to blanket the region.
The announcement came as IQAir, an air quality monitor, ranked Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur as the world’s two most polluted cities on Tuesday.
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Firefly said in a statement that flights between the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) near Kuala Lumpur and the Seletar Airport in Singapore (XSP) have been cancelled up to Wednesday due to “weather and haze conditions”.
It called the action a “proactive safety measure”.
The fires, mostly on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, are the country’s most intense in 11 years. They have been spurred by El Nino, a weather pattern expected to be among the strongest in four decades.
IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company, said Air Quality Index in Singapore stood at 199 on Tuesday and 183 in Kuala Lumpur. Readings above 150 are generally considered unhealthy, and those above 300 are classified as hazardous.
Firefly, a subsidiary of Malaysia Aviation Group, which includes Malaysia Airlines, first announced the flight cancellations on October 10, citing “low visibility” due to the haze conditions.
Firefly said that affected passengers were being rebooked on Malaysia Airlines flights between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Singapore’s Changi Airport, subject to seat availability.
The Singapore government has reintroduced subsidised care for haze-related illnesses, as it last did in 2015, when smoke from Indonesian fires hung over the region for weeks.
In Malaysia, schools reopened in most states on Tuesday as air quality improved slightly, but they remain closed in three states, one federal territory and several districts.
Malaysia’s foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said on Monday that he would press for stronger regional mechanisms when foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet next month.
“We already have an ASEAN mechanism for natural disasters, but haze is not included or classified as a natural disaster,” he told reporters in Sepang, according to Bernama, Malaysia’s state news agency.
The Philippines, which chairs the bloc this year, confirmed that the issue would be on the agenda.
“It’s in the agenda,” Dominic Xavier Imperial, a spokesman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, said of the November meeting, which will precede the 49th ASEAN summit in Manila.
Mohamad, the Malaysian minister, said Indonesia had deployed about 60,000 personnel to fight the fires, but thick smoke had grounded 34 aircraft, including planes and helicopters.
Remote terrain and limited water supplies have also hindered the effort, he said, and cloud seeding is not possible without suitable rain clouds. He acknowledged Indonesia’s efforts but urged more effective action, citing the toll on Malaysian communities.
Hamilton had started on the medium tyres while Verstappen and Leclerc chose the softs. Despite his theoretically more durable tyres, the Briton pitted on lap 18 to switch to the softs, while Leclerc waited until lap 24 to swap his softs for mediums.
Leclerc came out of the pits from his stop just ahead of Hamilton, who had stronger pace on his softer tyres.
Yet Ferrari chose not to order Leclerc to let Hamilton through to maximise his pace, a decision that was questioned by Hamilton from the car.
A virtual safety car was called on lap 39 and Leclerc and Antonelli, who had chased the Ferraris closely from the start from his fourth place on the grid, took the opportunity for a cheap pit stop – it takes 10 seconds less to stop under a safety car than under racing conditions.
Yet Hamilton, despite having older tyres, did not stop, a decision that promoted him to second behind Verstappen.
As Leclerc was catching Hamilton, the Briton was told he needed to stop again; he pushed back to suggest he try to go to the end, but was told they were six laps short to make it in terms of tyre life.
Leclerc soon caught Hamilton and passed him on lap 46 and set off after Verstappen, but could get no closer than 7.3 seconds to the Red Bull.
Hamilton never did stop, but as his tyres lost grip he fell back into the clutches of Norris and Antonelli.
A passing attempt by Norris on lap 54 with eight to go saw Hamilton run off track and take to the escape road at Turn One, but as he did, Antonelli grabbed the chance to pass the McLaren, and then Hamilton later on the same lap.
Norris followed him through, and now Hamilton fell back towards the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who passed him on the final lap after a resolute attempted defence from Hamilton.
It was Hamilton’s call not to stop and he apologised for it on the slowing down lap – but there remain a number of questions as to the choices made.
Russell’s fight back through the field took him up to seventh as he delayed his pit stop as long as possible.
But after dropping back to 10th behind Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, he passed Gasly after trailing him for 10 laps or so, but could not make it past Hulkenberg, who was himself chasing Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar took the final point in 10th after starting from the back.
If that is not a major concern for Antonelli, it certainly is for McLaren.
They had their own purple patch in the summer, when Lando Norris took consecutive wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, and would have won in Madrid had it not been for the unfortunate timing of a virtual safety car.
But the world champions have slipped from competitiveness in recent races, and before the Singapore Grand Prix they lie in third place in the constructors’ championship, only 11 points ahead of Red Bull.
Saturday in Singapore was a bad day at the office for McLaren.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were heading for fourth and fifth places in the sprint when Norris made a dive down the inside of his team-mate at Turn Five on the final lap.
This is not a common overtaking spot and from a McLaren point of view it was a move with no reward, only risk.
The move might have made sense if it had come earlier in the race and enabled Norris to challenge Leclerc, struggling in front of them, for third.
But on the last lap, Norris was not going to have a go at Leclerc even if he had got through – the only remaining overtaking place was at the end of the following straight into Turn Seven.
If the McLaren drivers swapped places, it would make no difference to the team in terms of a collective points haul, but if it went wrong, the cost could be high.
And so it did. Norris was in a position to make a legitimate move, but they came together, pirouetted in tandem, Piastri into the barriers and out of the race and Norris slipping down to eighth. Nine points had become one.
The stewards took no action, feeling that “both drivers had contributed to the incident”.
Piastri had explained in the hearing that he did not expect Norris to try a move there, and attempted to leave space when he saw him.
Norris argued that his his car was in a position that, according to the rules, entitled him to make an overtaking attempt, so expected to be left space and had braked and gone over the kerb when he realised he was not going to get as much as he expected.
He said: “There are two sides, one is what the stewards say and that’s a fair reasoning, no-one’s to blame. But I did apologise because it was still me attacking, as I had the right to do. If I just sat there and was boring like I should be, nothing would have happened. So really it’s still my fault but I deserved to go for the space and I still believe I had the right for it.”
Norris added: “As you probably expect, no-one’s very happy. I’m not happy, Oscar isn’t happy. None of us wanted it to go that way. There was things both of us could have done better and, yeah, we spoke about it and we moved on.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his second pole position in a week by beating the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s first lap in final qualifying was enough to take pole, his time fending off a second lap from Leclerc that was 0.054 seconds off pole.
Hamilton was closest to Verstappen after the first runs but was unable to improve on his second run.
In fact, most of the front runners struggled to improve on their second runs, as Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli took fourth on the grid, from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell was sixth fastest but will drop to the back of the grid with a penalty for using too many engine parts.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was the only driver in the top four teams other than Leclerc to improve on his second run but could do no better than qualify seventh.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.
Max Verstappen’s sprint race win was Dutchman’s first of any kind in Singapore as he finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Published On 10 Oct 202610 Oct 2026
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a wet and wild Singapore Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday after George Russell crashed his Mercedes while leading at the end of the opening lap.
Four-time Formula One champion Verstappen held off Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to win by 2.50 seconds, with Charles Leclerc third as the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri touched and spun on the final lap while in fourth and fifth.
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A heavy shower 10 minutes before the scheduled start meant a delay of 30 minutes.
All cars began on intermediate tyres, with some sectors of the Marina Bay Street Circuit much drier than others as the field embarked on two formation laps behind the safety car.
Rain falls on the grid before the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Singapore at Marina Bay Street Circuit on Saturday [Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images]
The eventual standing start saw Russell start on the front row alongside pole-sitter Verstappen and it was the Englishman who got away better.
His lead was short-lived as he lost control after touching a treacherous white line on the final bend of the opening lap. He slid sideways into the pit lane wall, bringing out a safety car.
It was another setback in a season of bad luck for Russell, who will start from the back of the grid in Sunday’s Grand Prix because of engine penalties.
“It was a miscalculation,” Russell told Sky Sports. “Came through the corner, had more battery deployment than I thought, pushed me a little bit wider than I hoped and went on to the white line.
“Silly mistake. Big consequences.”
It left Hamilton, who had a brilliant start from sixth on the grid, in second place, having leapfrogged Ferrari teammate Leclerc and the two McLarens.
The big beneficiary of Norris and Piastri’s “papaya spat” on the last lap was championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who inherited fourth place in his Mercedes having started seventh on the grid.
Fifth was RB’s Liam Lawson, sixth was the Haas of Oliver Bearman, seventh was Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg and Norris got going again to limp home in eighth and round out the points scorers.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won an incident-packed sprint race at the Singapore Grand Prix after Mercedes driver George Russell crashed out of the lead.
Russell was leading in tricky conditions, with half the track dry and half wet, when he got a little too wide at the final corner at the end of the first lap.
He lost control of his Mercedes, which spun across the track into the inside wall, before bouncing back again to the outside, the rest of the field somehow avoiding him.
A final-lap collision between the McLarens as Lando Norris tried to pass Oscar Piastri at Turn Five promoted Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli to fourth place.
In combination with Russell’s retirement, that extends the Italian’s championship lead to 89 points.
Verstappen’s pole lap appeared to be further confirmation of Red Bull’s resurgence after his dominant win in Malaysia but he faces an investigation for overtaking under yellow flags shown before the first session was stopped for the Perez incident.
The four-time champion said he had not believed pole was possible before qualifying.
“We have some difficulties with the car in ride, as we know,” he said, “but at least when we went to the soft tyres (in the final session), it made the car a bit more stable in places where before you were a bit unsure.
“I did not expect this but you take it, I’m happy for sure. Qualifying tomorrow is still the main goal and for us the start is always a critical point but at least a positive end to our day.”
Russell’s performance compared with that of Antonelli raises further doubts about the efficacy of the Mercedes upgrade introduced in Malaysia.
It was their biggest car update since the Canadian Grand Prix in May but team boss Toto Wolff said at Sepang that it had appeared to take them backwards rather than forwards.
Mercedes split the car spec here in Singapore in an attempt to better understand its performance but Antonelli ended the session 0.573secs behind Russell.
The Briton said: “As a team there is still nothing telling us it isn’t working but it’s all driven by the stopwatch and, yeah, the stopwatch hasn’t been great for the upgrade yet. Maybe tomorrow’s a different day.”
Antonelli, who leads the championship by 84 points going into the weekend, said: “Already FP1 I was struggling and there is still a lot to understand about this package. Really the car is very difficult, very unpredictable, very difficult to put a lap together. It’s a shame. I was coming with high hopes but so far it has been very difficult.
“It’s going to be a difficult weekend unless we can pull something out tomorrow. Other than that it is going very tricky. I don’t really see where we can find 0.7secs but you never know.”
Wolff said before sprint qualifying: “The new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive. Not saying it’s necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven’t just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it. The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point.”
Leclerc was 0.243secs off pole, and ruing what he said was Ferrari “losing a little bit of our raw performance” in the past three or four races.
However, he added: “Still I feel there is potential in the car and maybe tomorrow we can be there or thereabouts in fighting for pole.”
Hamilton said: “We did a slightly different run plan to the others. It was my choice, but I think we got that wrong. But ultimately, the car was very oversteery on that lap. If the rears [tyres] are not ready or they are overheating, it’s difficult to say. But it was very snappy and oversteery in the lap overall.”
The Singapore Grand Prix has been declared a heat-hazard race, the second weekend in a row that the designation has been used in Formula 1 and the fourth time this year.
The definition allows teams to fit cooling devices to their cars that pump liquid through a vest worn by the driver to manage temperatures in the cockpit.
A heat hazard is an official status for an event where it is forecast that temperatures will exceed 31C at some point during the race. It was first introduced in 2025.
Singapore is close to the equator and has long been known as one of the most demanding for drivers – in 2024, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were treated for heat exhaustion after the race.
Temperatures in the city are always in the 31-33C region across the race weekend, with high humidity and a chance of rain every day.
The race is held at night, but temperatures remain in the region of 30C even after dark.
A cooling kit is not mandatory, but any driver who chooses not to use it has to carry 5kg of ballast in their car to ensure he does not have a competitive advantage.
The system uses a cooling tank and pump, usually situated in the car’s nose, that delivers a cooled liquid, such as glycol, through a system of pipes in a fireproof top worn under their overalls.
Some teams and drivers prefer not to use the system because of two key compromises.
It is difficult to keep the liquid cool enough for long enough so that it lasts for an entire grand prix – a problem exacerbated in Singapore because it is the longest race of the year.
And some drivers find the cooling top uncomfortable in the tight confines of the cockpit.
If the liquid cannot be kept cool, it reverts to car temperature, which is considerably higher than ambient. It is not unusual for temperatures in an F1 cockpit to rise above 40C.
Mercedes are one of the teams who have decided against running the system because they preferred to devote the resource that would have been involved in making it robust enough to last a race into car performance.
Governing body the FIA has granted teams an allowance under the cost cap of $50,000 (£38,000) if they can make a system that keeps the liquid cool for an entire grand prix, and a further $75,000 (£57,000) if they could make the top comfortable.
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord described the allowance as “small”, adding: “We didn’t believe that allowance was sufficient for us to be able to develop a solution that would be robust enough to last for the entire race.”
Singapore follows the Austrian, Italian and last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia in being declared a heat-hazard race this year.
