Back around the turn of the millenium, the idea of a night race in F1 was bounced around. the idea was that the Sepang circuit in Malaysia would install hundreds of flood lights and stage a night race, similar to that of NASCAR. The objective of this was to keep the European audience tuned into the race. A race at 7:00PM in Kuala Lumpur would be 12:00 noon for Europe, and 11:00AM for England. It would also be 3:00AM for the poor souls in the Pacific time zone, like myself. But, really, who cares about America? Anyway, the idea was for the night race to be either in the 2001 or 2002 season. Obviously, that idea never came to fruition. While I do like the image I have in my head of Sepang lit up at night, I like less the image of myself looking at the clock reading 3:00AM and the alarm blaring for me to get up to watch the actual race. I would actually think a night race in Europe would be a better idea. Not only would it bring in the European audience during primetime, but it would also all those in America to see it during lunch time. Even Hawaiian would only have to get up at 9:00AM or so.
Now, which European circuit would be best suited to hold this night race? Well, Silverstone, Magny-Cours, and the Nurburgring are too spread out to make it work. Barcelona and the Hungaroring are too boring. Monza would be good, but the locals would complain about the cars not allowing them to make their 6:00PM bed times. Monaco would be awesome, but it’s already cramped as it is. They had to reclaim some land from the harbor for goodness sake. That leaves Spa. O…. My…..
Think of it. Spa. At night. The light dancing between the trees. Hell, it’d probably be raining too. I’d kill to get tickets to sit near Eau Rouge and watch those cars go through it at full bore, at night, maybe through the rain. Awww. Now there is a teeny weentsy problem…
Money. In fact, that’s probably how much the Belgian GP has in the way of funds. Hopefully, Bernie will keep a couple bucks saved up somewhere to fund this project. With the Bernie fund in full affect, this project could go ahead and give us the dream that is a night race at Spa. I hope that Bernie will read this and be inspired to put the money into doing it. I really have no idea on what kind of money would be needed. It may cost $10M-$15M, but I say it’s money well spent. I hope Bernie gets the memo, “Turn the lights on for us, Bernie. Please?”
Tags: night race
[...] F1 needs a night race – Some interesting speculation on how a night race could fit into the F1 calendar. It seems to me like a sensible way of having an F1 race in an exotic new location while still being able to broadcast the event at a reasonable hour in Europe. Make it happen, Bernie! NASCAR vs the Federal Election Commission – A funny little story for those keeping an eye on F1’s number one rival (in America at least), NASCAR. [...]
Well, the latest is that there are talks to have a night street race in Singapore. I would like to see that happen!
You should try to watch F1 in Australia where gettign up in the early hours of the morning is a common occurence. Even the Malaysia GP is delayed until 10:30PM so a night race woudl actually mean we would see it closer to the live time
[...] beat us this time. FIA gave Singapore the green light to host the first ever night F1 race. The idea of having a night F1 race bounced around back in the 2000 or the 2001 season. At that time it was planned to be held at [...]