Will night-time racing be coming to Shanghai in the future?
The first ever night race in Formula 1 has moved a step closer after circuit designer Hermann Tilke said it was now possible to successfully stage and televise such an event. "You also need a certain amount of brightness to allow TV cameras to show the cars property – not as blurry streaks! But there have been tremendous developments in lighting and camera technology, so I don’t see it being a problem.â€
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone recently said that one or two night-time races could on the cards by the end of the decade – with Japan and China in the frame to host them.
The onset of night racing at grands prix in the Far East would likely prove to be a hit with European TV viewers in particular, with races moved into a more traditional afternoon slot and F1 would not be the first major motorsport series to experiment with racing under floodlights, with American series’ NASCAR, Champ Car and IndyCar already having hosted night-time events.
Yeah I read that in Autosport magazine today, seems like a winning idea to me. It works in the IRL and BTCC, why not F1? And as you say, it would bring the Far Eastern races to a more sociable time slot for us Europeans. My missus hates it when I get up at 5am just for a race!
Tbh, anyone who has played Gran Turismo and raced at night would like this
Even Ridge Racer night races were cool.
It'd be ace to see if it would affect any drivers. Not in a "scared of the dark" way, but whether a driver out there has a 6th sense for night races, like Senna did for rain etc.
In a time of global financial crisis... cheap motorsport is the key!! GPRL resumes in 2009!
There's nothing to say against such a spectacle. If everything is save I would prefer a night race in China (for example) instead of having to get up at 5pm (as Dan already mentioned).
Headlights would be an interesting aerodynamic challenge for the designers...
Seriously though, did anyone ever see the F3000 car that a Japanese bloke made road legal? I think it was an early '90s Reynard and the bloke was called Go Ishikawa (I think). It looked, er, interesting... It was on a programme over here in Britain called Top Gear several years ago, headlights and indicators were mounted on the front wing along with a licence plate. Very odd!
Obviously, if you're constructing a new track anyway, you could plan with bigger, stadium-type lighting from the start and you wouldn't have to "improvise" with balloons...
