Just how good will the Mercedes car look under the lights in Singapore?

The sleek Silver Arrows will dazzle in their first outing in a night race.

That aside, there’s not much to get excited about for Mercedes fans.

Alll the talk in the build up centres around whether Michael Schumacher should stay for another season or retire before he makes a mockery of his legendary status.

For the record, Schumacher should definitely give it one more year. It has taken him time to get accustomed to the modern-day sport, of course, but with a full year under his belt and another winter testing session to hone his skills further in a potentially title-challenging car, you will see a more competitive ex-World Champion next year.

And the news from next year’s car is positive. Ross Brawn said: “I think I understand why we are where we are and know things need to do to be in a better position next year”

He also believes the Pirelli tyres that will be available next season will suit the car more than the Bridgestone ones have this year, especially with Schumacher, who has struggled with the weak front-end nature of the Japanese-based companies tyres.

As for Singapore, Mercedes have tweaked their setup to get the best performance possible out of their current package on the low-speed, high-downforce setup.

Brawn said: “We have achieved decent results within the performance limitations of our car at the past two races and hope to have a strong end to the season during the final flyaway races.”

A strong end will, once again, be a double points finish. You can rely on Nico Rosberg to finish as high as the car can possibly manage, but Schumacher may struggle on a brand new circuit for him. On his last visit to a track he had no experience at, he finished down in 15^th.

His younger team-mate has a mixed history at this track. In 2008 he finished second, behind Fernando Alonso, in the infamous ‘crash-gate’ race, while last year he was on for a podium until a lapse in concentration saw him cross the white line when exiting the pit-lane, and the resulting penalty left him in last place.

A podium won’t be happening for him this time, unless the front-runners get too wound up in their title battle and knock each other off (Sebastian Vettel, I’m looking at you).

He will be finishing ahead of his team-mate, barring a mistake or two, though.

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Click on the images below to see how McLaren and Ferrari fare in the battle of the Formula One WAGs!

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