Mar 27, 2009, 16:03 GMT
Abu Dhabi - The Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, set to close the season that starts Sunday, could become a night-time race in 2010.
'The fact that we can run the track 24 hours a day leaves us in a very good position to run the circuit at night-time. There are a lot of possibilities,' the race's general manager Richard Cregan said in an interview with German Press Agency dpa.
By going nocturnal next year, the Grand Prix in the capital of the United Arab Emirates would be following on the footsteps of Singapore, which in 2008 hosted the first race ever run with artificial lighting.
Further, it would most likely put a smile on the face of Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who is ever longing for better broadcasting times to attract European television audiences.
The Abu Dhabi circuit is not yet ready, but its bosses insist that the futuristic setting they are planning to show the world on November 1 will in fact be all set weeks before the last grand prix of the season.
Cregan would first like to deliver on the first challenge, the race in November, although he admits that the idea of having a night- time F1 race sounds very good.
'We are flexible for the future, we don't know yet when the 2010 grand prix is going to take place,' he said. 'Singapore was a very, very good experience. It was new, a new track, a city track, and at night. It ran very, very well in terms of organisation. A night race has an atmosphere.'
Cregan - an Irishman who started out working as a mechanic for Irish airline Aer Lingus - knows full well what he is talking about: for almost 25 years he was a key man in Toyota, where among other tasks he was in charge of preparing the team for the 24 hours of Le Mans.
'Once the lights come on in Le Mans it's a different atmosphere,' he recalled.
'To run a grand prix at night in the future would be a very interesting concept,' he explained. 'Plus we live in a country here where people come alive at night during the summer. That's an added issue.'
When could such an event take place?
'Realistically, we're thinking about a date like Bahrain (March, April, September, October). June-July is too hot,' Cregan said.
His idea makes sense and it is feasible, because it is in line with the wishes of the owner of F1's television rights, Ecclestone. And it could even be a night-time grand prix to close the season, because November temperatures would allow it: quite a dream for Abu Dhabi.
In 2008, Ecclestone already tried to convince the authorities of the Australian state of Victoria to have the Australian Grand Prix - set to be raced Sunday and which traditionally opens the season - take place at night. He did not manage to get his point taken.
The event will now take place three hours later than usual, but still in the daytime: Europeans will watch it for breakfast, not in the middle of a late Saturday night out.
Singapore, a success in 2008, paved the way that Abu Dhabi now wants to tread. Replacing Brazil as the last race in the season has undoubted advantages, as long as the championship winner is determined by the last 500 metres of the season, as happened in 2008. However, that situation is of course unpredictable.
'The main thing is that we have a grand prix and we are happy to have it,' Cregan said.
Weeks before this year's race - the first ever official F 1 race in the United Arab Emirates - he will have to negotiate with Ecclestone the date for 2010.
'We have signed for seven years, but the calendar is a combination of (the international motorsport federation) FIA and (Ecclestone's firm) FOM,' Cregan said cautiously.
Soon afterwards, however, the dream takes off again.
'The lighting which is available now is at a standard where the drivers have no problems with it. Singapore was a success, everybody delivered a fantastic event, the light signals for the drivers, the lighting of the track...'
'People and drivers like stability,' he admitted.
However, Cregan will not give up on his dream so easily.
'Technical challenges are good,' he stressed.
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