Quote from Lateralus :

Hell, you're right! You must be the first person in history to have ever considered the possibility of rain during a night race. Better get Bernie and the phone and tell him your brilliant ideas for how best to mitigate the farcical procession that will surely result. :rolleyes:

Christ people, this plan has been in development for years. FOM has people who do nothing but sit around and plan for things like this. The FIA has conducted wet tests on a floodlit track with F1 cars, with F1 drivers. No serious problems were found, and the go-ahead has been given.

The reason Bernie is pushing for a night races in the far east is purely because of TV ratings. A night race in Singapore is afternoon in Europe, which is prime for a big audience. Four, five, six AM races are dismal for ratings.

Furthermore, the race will not look it is being run in the daytime. Haven't you ever seen a race run at night? A two-second googling of 'IRL night' gave lots of returns of footage of open-wheelers running at night. The track is lit up well, but the multitude of floodlights makes the cars gleam brilliantly. It looks really good when the pack tears by at 200mph.

There will be no sort of 'luminescence' on the cars, other than what is already standard. They won't even run with the flashing red light if the weather is clear.

The cars are going to look absolutely fantastic for the Singapore Grand Prix next year, especially crossing the lit-up bridge. This circuit is quite a bit different than many other street circuits. Watching the cars coming down Esplanade Drive and through the fast sweeper will be quite a sight. Singapore will be right up there with the best venues on the calendar. Just you wait and see.

Gee thanks for sarcastically telling me stuff that I already knew about. Do you feel important now that you've indicated how my opinion doesn't live up to your standards? Maybe when the GP in your city gets turned into a novelty event for European TV you might see red too? Bernie wants the Melbourne race turned into a night event, effectively destroying any chance locals may have had of experiencing a real Grand Prix. If I can manage to stay up late for every GP on the calender outside my time zone (yeah that's nearly all of them) I'm hardly about to sympathise with Bernie's argument. We stage one of the best events in the world and it is heading for the garbage bin due to greed. I don't follow F1 so that I can see cars that "look good", I'm only interested in the racing. I suppose all of the stupid fans will be a'hollerin' and hootin' when they see those nice shiny cars and they'll all be happy that they can watch the race before their Mummies send them off to bed. Wouldn't want to be tired for school now.

F1 has been raking in large wads of cash under the current system, the sponsors do not suffer at all and neither does the sport. Dumb arguments for the masses of sheep won't change my mind.

well i thought this was bloomin stupid when i heard about it some time back.... and i still think its stupid..

i mean whats comming next? an underwater event? its just totaly nuts, no need for it imo, and i duno why but i just dont like the idea safety wise, dont ak me why i just got a feeling about this, that this idea will be scraped for the wrong reasons..

there are lots of problems with f1 and this is not one of em, i carnt pretend that i havent fell asleep during a f1 race becasue somtimes its boring (and im a big f1), we need closer racing and more driver dependant cars..

if they want to throw there weight about and dish out new reg's

bring back slicks NOW
kill TC
ban winglets
cut the crap on this "adjustable wing from the cockpit" idea..

at the moment the cars are holding THE DRIVERS back, aero wise, sort it out and lets see some scraps!!! sort that out, then give us cars that show how good the drivers are, nailing the throttle out of a slow turn ina car as powerfull as a f1 is crap, loose the TC, i want to see the drivers harness the power some some computer chip.. yes i know we are loosing TC but its been inforce way to long

fix the problems we have dont make more!

Quote from Bob Smith :

If they want the track lit up so well why can't they just race during the day?

Cuz it'll interfere with everyday traffic and stuff.

Ah yes, all that everyday traffic that just disappears when the sun goes down in Singapore!

Quote from Gunn :

Maybe when the GP in your city gets turned into a novelty event for European TV you might see red too? Bernie wants the Melbourne race turned into a night event, effectively destroying any chance locals may have had of experiencing a real Grand Prix.

To right they've turned the GP into a joke, i loved it the couple of times i went, sitting on the corner before the back straight loved it but they've screwed it up now.

But i thought Melbounre was in the run for the Night GP but proberly got put off with the power wasting and god only knows what else, am looking foward to what happens when a F1 crashes at 200+kph at night on a street circuit.

Quote from Gunn :

effectively destroying any chance locals may have had of experiencing a real Grand Prix.

This doesn't make any sense. Spectator visibility is the same on a floodlit track at night as it is during the day. How is it somehow a less 'real' race, other than the fact that you personally don't happen to like it?

Quote from Gunn :

If I can manage to stay up late for every GP on the calender outside my time zone (yeah that's nearly all of them) I'm hardly about to sympathise with Bernie's argument

Of course not. This only makes your F1 experience worse. Again though, this has absolutely nothing to do with your opinion but with the fact that many many times more people in Europe skip watching fly-away races because of the broadcast time. It is just practical business to satisfy the vast majority of your audience, even at the expense of a few. And this is 100% a business decision, not a sporting one.

Quote from Gunn :

don't follow F1 so that I can see cars that "look good", I'm only interested in the racing.

This won't appreciably affect the racing.

Quote from Gunn :

F1 has been raking in large wads of cash under the current system, the sponsors do not suffer at all and neither does the sport.

Wrong. FOM have been profiting enormously; circuit owners (not all of them in Europe) usually lose money staging a Grand Prix. Night racing is an opportunity for venue owners to make their event stand out from the rest and make it possible to profit by hosting F1. Ignoring the logistical problems, holding the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne under lights would make it even more prestigious and special, which is to say viewed by more spectators live and on TV and thus more profitable.

Quote from Alkanphel :

Cuz it'll interfere with everyday traffic and stuff.

I doubt the track will be open for public traffic the afternoon before the race.

Monaco is only shut down the at like 5 AM or something before the race.

So they actually open the track between practice/quali/race?

I always thought it was closed from Thursday to Sunday.

Yup, or at least they did when Jeremy Clarkson filmed Motorworld (iirc is the name)

I don't mind. If it's well enough lit to be able to see what's what and who's who then it won't make any difference except I won't have to get up so early to watch it.

Quote from AstroBoy :

To right they've turned the GP into a joke, i loved it the couple of times i went, sitting on the corner before the back straight loved it but they've screwed it up now.

But i thought Melbounre was in the run for the Night GP but proberly got put off with the power wasting and god only knows what else, am looking foward to what happens when a F1 crashes at 200+kph at night on a street circuit.

exactly the same as what happens when people crash at 200+ km/h on monaco, perhaps?? Itll basically look like daytime, it isnt a big deal.

Quote from Gizz :

bring back slicks NOW

Do you think they're testing the slicks in Jerez just for kicks? Proposed to move back to slicks in 2009.

Quote :

ban winglets

Also proposal has been done... of course it's a long way to actually become a rule regarding FIA's average IQ.

Don't understand what's so big deal about the safety issues in this upcoming night race? If you can drive in Le Mans in nearly complete darkness (headlights on the cars doesn't help much in 340 km/h speeds) then why not in a much slower (though, much tighter also) track with lights covered around the track. AFAI remember there has been some night races on street tracks in ALMS too?

Pardon my ignorance, why ban winglets?

Quote from Alkanphel :

Pardon my ignorance, why ban winglets?

they create a huge amount of 'dirty air' behind the car, which means any car following isnt getting enough clean air to make the same amount of downforce, making it almost impossible to drive close to somebody.

making the cars rely less on downforce and more on mechanical grip (i.e slicks) should improve this.

Quote from deggis :

Don't understand what's so big deal about the safety issues in this upcoming night race?

I see a lot spouting off without bothering to actually think first. Night races aren't any more dangerous for F1 in the daytime. If they were, even a little, they would never have done it.

Some finer details about this night race here:

http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2 ... -details-released-on.html