Special paint for tyres in Singapore

[TheStig]

Bridgestone is playing safe: in order to ensure that the "extreme weather" tyres and super soft compounds can easily be identified in the first night race in Formula One history, the Japanese tyre manufacturer is marking its products with reflective paint - despite the glistening, artificial lighting around the circuit.

We are using a special paint for Singapore," explains Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone's Director of Motorsport Tyre Development. "We don't believe this will make any difference to the racing, but for the spectators and the media it should make it a little easier to tell which of our tyres are being used." This should not be a problem, even without the additional markings: the brightness of the lighting system around the 5.067 kilometre circuit amounts to 3000 lux. This is the equivalent of four times the brightness of lighting systems in sports stadiums. The total output required to light the circuit is 3,180,000 watts. 1500 spotlights will be used to light the track, while around 110 kilometres of cable have been laid. The free practice sessions, qualifying and the race itself will all take place in the dark.

http://www.f1network.net/main/s491/st133882.htm

TheStig

[John S]

Maybe they could encourage the back markers to keep their foot down by making the last place man pay the lighting bill.

[Steven Roy]

How long before a driver claims he was blinded by his tyres?

[Alianora La Canta]

It gets better. On one site, this was claimed to be "incandescent paint". Not the most reassuring of thoughts, since that suggests a hot filament is involved - or that Bridgestone have gone all poetical on us...