2008 Singaporean Grand Prix Gets FIA Approval

Motoring Channel Staff - 29/October/2007

Paris, France — After one of the more exciting seasons we've seen in F1 racing for quite some time, there's more good news for F1 fans. The Singaporean night race has been given the nod by the FIA.

The first ever Formula One race to be held at night is expected to cause a huge commotion on the 28th of September, 2008, in downtown Singapore as F1 cars tear through the city at night, across bridges and through roundabouts.

In 2007 the Formula One season was one of the most captivating we've seen in years, with the F1 Driver's champion, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, decided at the last race of the F1 season in Brazil. It capped off a fantastic year that saw debutant McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton almost claim the title in his first year. 

We ran a story on the possibility of a Singaporean night race in August 2007, where Australian driver Mark Webber talked about how much he liked the track in a video (click here). He also warned that if it rains it could pose a number of problems with water spray and reflections. 

Overall he called the concept 'absolutely spectacular'.

Next year the world will be watching what could be one of the most spectacular races of the season, and work is already well underway and transforming the heart of Singapore into an F1 track. 

Reports suggest the Singapore F1 race has a 5 year contract with the FIA, so would be run until 2012.

One of the reasons why night time F1 races are attracting attention (even the Melbourne F1 organisers are even looking at the logistics involved in a possible Australian night Grand Prix) is that in some countries the TV audience ratings are very low because because of time differences. But night races in the Asia-Pacific region would garner a much higher European audience and hence be more lucrative as the TV rights would be worth significantly more to advertisers.

Though the race will be at night, the F1 cars are not expected to be fitted with headlights as it would upset the careful aerodynamics the teams spend tens of millions of dollars annually perfecting.

Instead, the track is expected to be flood lit with some of the world's most powerful lights. There are rumours that an Italian company has been contracted to develop and build a large number of super powerful flood lights especially for the event, which could be visible from outer space.

The Proposed 2008 Formula One calendar is as follows:

Australia - March 16
Malaysia - March 23
Bahrain - April 6
Barcelona - April 27
Turkey - May 11
Monaco - May 25
Canada - June 8
France - June 22
Britain - July 6
Germany - July 20
Hungary - August 3
Valencia - August 24
Italy - September 7
Belgium - September 14
Singapore - September 28
China - October 12
Japan - October 19
Brazil - November 2