Putting night racing to the test

[The Stig]

According to reports coming out of Indianapolis, the FIA carried out their first real test in regard to the feasibility of night races when at 9:30 pm on Thursday night, after the sun had well and truly gone to bed for the evening, an official FIA safety car and medical cars lapped the artificially lit track

Musco Lighting, the same company responsible for lighting the way in night events for ChampCar and NASCAR supplied the units that light the Indianapolis circuit up like it was day as television crews filmed the action in order to get an idea what would be required to cover a night event.

The inaugural Singapore GP is scheduled to be a night event with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone also pressing organizers of the Australian Grand Prix to also host a night event, all in aid of making viewing times for European fans more attractive while Australians continue to watch the series in the middle of the night.

[Lynda]

I'll be intrigued to see how this pans out.

Love Lynda XX 

[f1box]

F1 night racing - my view in three words: Wrong, wrong, wrong!

In rather more words:
Bernie wanting his cake and eating it - governments and circuits falling over themselves to pay out a good wedge to host the GP over in the East and elsewhere (pushing up the price to all promoters), Bernie/Paddy wanting to maximise (further inflate) revenues from trackside advertising and corporate hospitality (so following the market abroad). Following these goals leaves a big headache - the more flyaway races abroad, the more distanced the sport becomes from the 'core' market - which is and always will be Europe and South America.

It's another exploitative development and introduction of yet more artifice into F1.

As for staging races at a time to maximise the European viewing public - easy, hold the damned races in Europe and the Americas.

With regards to the lighting issue - the aim is for 80% normal daylight, which probably amounts to the ambient light values during a wet race - so as a condition variable this situation already exists. It is not an additional test of driver skill

The figure I saw being quoted for getting this on stream was amout 8M to 10M (I can't remember if that was the dollar or GBP figure) - so you have to reckon on Bernie milking about 5 times that back out of the system - and who pays for that? We the fans do - it's all built into Allianz's and every other advertiser/sponsor's product cost - there's no such thing as a free lunch!

and my final objection ........... I'm a fan, getting up at 5 in the morning to watch a race is an act of pilgrimage, it sets me apart from the casual viewer - and I like that distinction!

David

[Steven Roy]

Night racing for F1 is crazy and shows Bernie's casual attitude to safety.  Night working automatically reduces performance and alertness.  I worked shifts for three years and this is definitely the case.  Bear in mind that a race weekend starts on a Friday.  Presumably it is considered safe for marshals to do their normal job during the day and marshal all night.  There is more than one race at a GP meeting.  You also have to get spectators to and from the track while they are tired and presumably all the hotels are going to change all their employees schedules for three days and then switch back.

It also blows Max's environmental credentials out of the water.  In order to have a race at a suitable time for european schedules you can
a: ship 100s of tons of equipment around the world.  Run the race in the middle of the night at massive environmental impact.
b: run the race in Europe.

Given that the stated intention is to have more street races it seems odd to have them at night.  I can't see many cities being thrilled at the prospect of racing engines running full chat all night.

[johnbull]

Why don't they just leave well alone.

The racing is perfectly good as it is - well not quite, but you know what I mean.

I hate anything false, and night racing is almost as false as some of Tilke's false circuits.

Bring back pure unadulterated Formula 1.