With the Singapore GP for next year being confirmed as a night race and the Melbourne GP considering doing it i was mulling over the prospect and though of something.

For a night race will they do night qualifying as well?

I know that other series (principally in the states) run at night and if there is a precedent for night quali there they might just continue that to F1. Can someone more informed then me give me a clue. Speculation also welcome.

Hadn't heard about this but it sounds like Max and Bernie's latest trivialisation of F1 plan :doh:

Quote from ajp71 :

Hadn't heard about this but it sounds like Max and Bernie's latest trivialisation of F1 plan :doh:

Jesus, could you please not turn this into another "OMG THEY'RE RUINING F1!!!!1" threads? Every F1 topic into forum seems to degenerate into that circle-jerkery. If you must shit all over a thread do it to one of the old ones.

Regarding the OP, it seems more likely that they would hold practice and qualifying sessions at a similar time to the GP itself. The teams would probably want it that way so the track conditions (air temperature especially) would be roughly similar to race conditions, and thus the data they gather would be more applicable to race situations.

The major reason Bernie wants night races in the east is so that they're live in primetime in Europe, so it would be logical to assume that he'd want all the GP sessions to be in primetime as well, assuming that were possible.

Then again, there might be significant logistical issues which would make an all-night weekend difficult. It's too early to say really. Once at least one GP is officially announced to be run at night we can start making some more concrete conclusions.

I'm all for F1 night races. Monaco at night would be great. I do think that they will have to run a night practice though ...

Quote :

The major reason Bernie wants night races in the east is so that they're live in primetime in Europe, so it would be logical to assume that he'd want all the GP sessions to be in primetime as well, assuming that were possible.

It would be afternoon in Europe.

Quote :

Then again, there might be significant logistical issues which would make an all-night weekend difficult. It's too early to say really. Once at least one GP is officially announced to be run at night we can start making some more concrete conclusions.

I'd love to see some changes to F1, but the season would need to be changed I.E. starting with the Asian races, then on to Europe, Brazil, Canada and end with the USA. With that, maybe the races at the end of the European season could be run under floodlights. That way F1 would be primetime TV in Europe and lunchtime in the US

EDIT : Maybe if some Europe races are run under lights, they could have free practice on Saturday, on Sunday morning have quali and the race in the evening. A 2 day race weekend for F1 with Friday being 4 hours or so of open track testing would be a very good idea.

[speculation]

It depends. It would really depend on the city of melbourne, and weather they want 800bhp Cars with no silencers or anything driving down their roads at 170mph at 2am. I for one wouldnt mind it, but i know that everyone else who lives in my village would shoot Someone. Annother option (which i am just adding on to the speculation about the people of monza wanting the cars to have silencers) would be to fit silencers to the cars. But then the chances are is that when the cars are coming down the pitlane, some careless pitwall person from a team**cough**Spyker**cough** will just step off the pitwall into an F1 travelling at (100km/h?). Not Nice [/speculation]

This is for sure. It isnt going to make much more of a difference to us watching the race, other than not having to get up at 3am to watch it. Because of the powerful night lighting they will have to run for safety reasons it will be hard to notice the difference.

I imagine that they would have to have their marker lights on, and maybe put headlights on the cars. If they have headlights, maybe they wouldn't need floodlights (LM24 isn't floodlit!). With the rear marker lights, I guess they could probably just use modified normal street lamps.

Quote from duke_toaster :

It would be afternoon in Europe.

:dunce: You're right, I meant to say towards primetime. As in, afternoon compared to 3 or 4 AM.

Quote from duke_toaster :

imagine that they would have to have their marker lights on, and maybe put headlights on the cars. If they have headlights, maybe they wouldn't need floodlights (LM24 isn't floodlit!). With the rear marker lights, I guess they could probably just use modified normal street lamps.

They won't put headlights on F1 cars. I'd put money on it.

The lighting will be specialized floodlights which will be custom-designed and installed for the specific needs of F1. Normal street lamps wouldn't cut it in a racing environment (at least the ones I'm used to seeing in the US).

Sports car races run at night are an entirely different animal than F1. I'd even hazard a guess that the main reason that races like Le Mans still run without full floodlighting is money. There's a lot less money in sports car racing, so it is thus harder to justify the expense of floodlighting a long circuit, and the teams have a lot less money to use toward satisfying complex regs passed to increase safety during night racing. Specifically, how would a Le Mans driver react to a situation like a deer running into the circuit in front of him? Headlights illuminate the road ahead but do a poor job illuminating stuff to the side. Traveling at 200+ mph doesn't leave much time for a driver to react. Floodlighting the entire circuit seems much much safer and thus something the FIA could justify doing.

Quote from Lateralus :

Sports car races run at night are an entirely different animal than F1. I'd even hazard a guess that the main reason that races like Le Mans still run without full floodlighting is money. There's a lot less money in sports car racing, so it is thus harder to justify the expense of floodlighting a long circuit, and the teams have a lot less money to use toward satisfying complex regs passed to increase safety during night racing. Specifically, how would a Le Mans driver react to a situation like a deer running into the circuit in front of him? Headlights illuminate the road ahead but do a poor job illuminating stuff to the side. Traveling at 200+ mph doesn't leave much time for a driver to react. Floodlighting the entire circuit seems much much safer and thus something the FIA could justify doing.

Floodlighting isn't that expensive given the amount of money around in even the less general entertainment aimed series that floodlighting the track wouldn't be unfeasible. The whole point of proper night/endurance racing is it's a challenge and the vast majority of LeMans fans, teams and drivers would think the concept of floodlighting the track to be an absolute travesty. Night races happen on unlit tracks.

Racing on floodlit circuits is not night racing, it's really like racing in the day but with artificial light, yes it will be slightly different to racing normally, if anything slightly easier because the light is all focused on the track. Single seaters, Nascars and any other cars without headlights cannot race in night races, I'd of thought you'd actually find the FIA regs would classify these races as conventional daylight races.

IMO the very notion of racing at night on a floodlit track is a complete waste of time.

Quote from RockBottomWalsh :

With the Singapore GP for next year being confirmed as a night race and the Melbourne GP considering doing it i was mulling over the prospect and though of something.

For a night race will they do night qualifying as well?

I know that other series (principally in the states) run at night and if there is a precedent for night quali there they might just continue that to F1. Can someone more informed then me give me a clue. Speculation also welcome.

this is the most stupid thing in f1 i think they had done, like Alonso said: "this inst a soccer game, we are risking our lives here"
so what will happen if a sudden, massive, blackout occurs?, they turning at a kurb at 200khm and then, u see dark, next ur in the hospital , i thought it would be cool, but nothing is perfect

Quote from ajp71 :

IMO the very notion of racing at night on a floodlit track is a complete waste of time.

I disagree. It can't really harm the spectacle; at the very least it should make the cars look even cooler, especially the Mclaren.

Quote from chanoman315 :

so what will happen if a sudden, massive, blackout occurs?,

Backup generators. They'll plan for this; this isn't some fool backyard go-karting. There would not be total floodlight failure at an F1 race.

Try harder.

With how anal some of the F1 teams are *Cough*Ferrari*Cough* I bet they'd demand at least one session around the same time as the GP itself. In addition, it would be a serious safety issue to throw the drivers into a night race without having practiced in it in those cars at least once. Racing on a floodlit track is quite different than racing during the day; it could actually be brighter, but on the other hand you have shadows being cast by hundreds of lights instead of just one (the sun) which would probably get confusing in some sections at some tracks.


Sounds like F1 is just trying to do something to get some ratings, though. As much as some people might like F1, you can't deny the fact that it is not what it used to be. Champ Car started this last season and it was met with some success. I guess Bernie likes gimmicks as much as TV producers...

I would imagine the track would be a fair bit colder at night, other than that I can't see it being much different.

Quote from Lateralus :

Backup generators. They'll plan for this; this isn't some fool backyard go-karting. There would not be total floodlight failure at an F1 race.

Try harder.

yes, but that doesnt works inmediately, u need to wait for a sec or so, that can cost something dont ya think?

It would be immediate if the generators are already running.. maybe in use instead of using the power grid?

Quote from chanoman315 :

yes, but that doesnt works inmediately, u need to wait for a sec or so, that can cost something dont ya think?

Haven't you ever heard of an uninterruptable power supply? Keeping continuous power to something, even through the loss of the main power source, is a trivial problem. Every modern hospital in the world has this installed for the whole building, and every large internet server does too.

NASCAR runs night races all the time. Keeping the lights on is not a problem. The only unusual thing here is that it's an F1 race, which normally isn't run at night.

Quote from 5th Earth :

Haven't you ever heard of an uninterruptable power supply? Keeping continuous power to something, even through the loss of the main power source, is a trivial problem. Every modern hospital in the world has this installed for the whole building, and every large internet server does too.

NASCAR runs night races all the time. Keeping the lights on is not a problem. The only unusual thing here is that it's an F1 race, which normally isn't run at night.

Yes i know everything about that,,,, but remember nothing is perfect in this world

I was talking about this to a friend of mine, I dont see how it would be possible. I guess they could light the track up enough, but is enough .. really enough at night? Heck even going 100 mph with a fully light highway with brights on is safe enough, it would be extremely hard to see any cars around you. Yes maybe you might see the backlight on a few infront of you, but you'd see nothing behind you.

So I concluded that the teams will put a clear shield at the front of their nose cones and put some big bright lights in there possibly. Not very plausible but.. we will have to wait and see.

Why is the concept of flood lights so hard to grasp? They would do the exact same thing NASCAR does, as did Champ Car last year in their road course night races.

Well first we don't know the track layout correct? It's being built or no? I dont remember what the announcers said, I just heard night race at Singapore.

I don't think I've ever seen champ cars race at night (then again I've only seen one champ car race), but Nascars, they have tons of lights, I'm just wondering how small or what shape this Singapore track is going to be, to be lit properly.

Champ car one or two night races last season. One of them was an Airport track and I forget what the other was. The cars did not have lights on them.

Found layout

Mosley: night racing not yet a reality