Grosjean believes Marina Bay circuit will suit Lotus - MotorSportsTalk

Romain Grosjean is confident that the Marina Bay Street Circuit will suit Lotus at next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix as the French driver looks to secure his future with the team for next season.

The F1 circus arrives in Singapore for the first of seven flyaway races that will close out the 2013 Formula One season. The grand prix is the only night race on the calendar, making it a spectacle for the fans and a challenge for the drivers under the lights. Grosjean does believe that the tight and twisty nature of the track will suit Lotus, though.

“It is a very high downforce track and that seems to suit us best as we saw in Budapest,” Grosjean said. At the race in Hungary, he ran well to finish sixth despite being slapped with two penalties from the stewards.

Lotus appear to have excelled at the high downforce circuits such as Australia and Hungary, with the team struggling at the last two grands prix – Spa and Monza – that require optimum straight-line speed.

“Certainly we should be able to perform stronger than at the last two races which haven’t always suited our car,” Grosjean said.

Following Kimi Raikkonen’s decision to leave Lotus at the end of the season, Grosjean has been tipped to lead the team in 2014. However, given that he is on a three-race rolling contract, he will need to put in some strong performances at the back-end of 2013 to secure his place at the team next season.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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