Abu Dhabi Grand Prix bosses have revealed that they are considering running their race at night, following Formula One's first floodlit event last weekend.
The inaugural Singapore Grand Prix was also the first F1 race whose organisers had caved in to pressure to stage the event in the dark, simply to make the start time more convenient for the sport's core fanbase in Europe.
And where European events can use what's known as "daylight" to help drivers avoid crashing into each other, the race in Singapore, where none of the locals actually wanted to watch, pandered to the sport's main audience by running it at night, to the undoubted annoyance of anyone near the track who was trying to get an early night, not to mention the extortionate cost or the unconscionable environmental impact of lighting up the circuit to resemble something that was almost, but not quite, as good as running the cars during the day.
So now, because the Singapore race was deemed "a success", other venues have started considering following suit. Abu Dhabi seems like an odd candidate to do so because its time zone is only two or three hours ahead of European time, so holding their race at night means that it would be broadcast in Europe in the early evening, but a comment from the race organiser reveals that he's thinking less about the audience and more about securing the future of his race.
"The more unique you are in the future," explained race boss Philippe Gurdjian, "the more you will be successful."
Okay, so now we're all thinking that holding races at night is a good idea just for the novelty value. Is that right? Shall we all get fitted for straitjackets now, to save time later?
The sport is justifiably criticised for hauling thousands of personnel, as well as tons of cars and equipment, twice around the world during the course of a season and, while there have been recent palliatives directed at the green lobby, the decision to stage races at night is so far off-message as to make the tiny environmental concessions F1 actually has made seem like mere misdirection.
Fit the cars with headlights and racing at night becomes both atmospheric and as environmentally acceptable as motorsport gets but lighting the whole track to simulate daylight simply because of an inexplicable desire to move the races away from Europe without inconveniencing European fans is folly on the grandest scale.
The whole situation would be laughable if it weren't so depressing. |
