I just heard a rumor that the Singapore F1 race will be run at night. Has anybody else heard if this is true? Also, it was mentioned that the race would be run at the end of September which makes sense due to the Asian part of the schedule.
I'll try to locate the link.

 

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/formulaone/auto/41215/

The FIA has confirmed the 2008 Formula 1 calendar, including the World Championship’s first night race at the new Singapore track.

The schedule issued following today’s World Motor Sport Council meeting matched the provisional calendar released earlier this year, but with Canada, Singapore and Valencia all confirmed, and Singapore specified as the first floodlit evening grand prix.

The Montreal race had remained provisional on the previous schedule, while the new tracks in Singapore and the Spanish circuit of Valencia (which will hold the European Grand Prix) were both subject to circuit approval.

Although it had always been anticipated that the Singapore GP would be run at night, the FIA wanted to be certain that it could be achieved safely before providing official confirmation.

2008 FIA Formula 1 World Championship

March 16 Australia
March 23 Malaysia
April 6 Bahrain
April 27 Spain
May 11 Turkey
May 25 Monaco
June 8 Canada
June 26 France
July 6 Great Britain
July 20 Germany
August 3 Hungary
August 24 Europe
September 7 Belgium
September 14 Italy
September 28 Singapore*
October 12 Japan
October 19 China
November 2 Brazil

* night race

 

Thanks, I just realized where I saw it.
Has there ever been a night race before? Has Bill France taken over Bernie's mind?

 

Something is missing from that schedule. What could it be? If Canada doesn't go off this year there will be no F1 in North America. Query. Will that be a blow to what I think is a growing following here in the US?

 

If the Singapore race is ran at 7:00 pm local time, then that is 8:00am in New York, and noon in London. See the reasoning yet...

 

I don't think it will be. The USGP at indy was in my mind the Eastern US GP, not the USGP, same thing in Canada really... just my opinion

 

jmorris:
I thought the same thing about the time.
I'm curious to see how the F1 circus looks at night.

 

Remember thought that F1 cars don't have lights(how cool would it be if they stuffed some exoticly styled Xenons into the nose cone...), so there will a gazillion flood lights set up to make it look like daytime. Probably won't be much different than the normal races...

 

It's easier for the engineers since the sun is taken out of the equation

 

 

I know there's a big difference in CART and F1 but we went to the CART night race in Houston a couple of years ago and it was unreal. You really see the glow of the breaks and the sparks flying that you wouldn't normally see in the daylight. It reminds me of Sebring after dark.

 

Canada is there and confirmed.

I don't think no North America race affects the US following since mostly this all is TV audience, they have moved so many races from Europe to far east etc. and that hasn't affected the following.

US needs to have succesful US driver in there and that would affect the following (positively).

Finland is a good example, there never has been F1 race there, and I don't think there ever will but we have 2.5 good, succesful drivers in F1 (Rosberg is 1/2 Finn, 1/2 German) and every race if watched live by approx. 1/4 of the population.

 

Coming from a country that produced more than its fair share of F1 drivers, from a population even less than Finland's, I can support the hypothethis that the world's best drivers come from the world's most boring countries.

When Finland has fewer F1 drivers, it will have become a more interesting place to live in.

Finally, of course Finland has a GP, in Hungary, where the girls are also gorgeous, the booze is strong and the language is impenetrable.

R+C

 

Maybe that's the key, in order to be fast, country needs to be boring!

I can't agree too much though, there's penty of non-boring places/things in Finland. Not that it's like South BEach, NYC or something but anyways.

And hey now! I just read that Finland is officially the "Fastest Nation in the world".

And that stat was done only using F1 drivers (how many champions & how many titles vs. the population), if you'd include other international motorsports such as Rally, Enduro etc. it was a non contest.
I know, bear with me guys, I can't help it, I'm proud of that.

Hungary... Those those few times I've been there to see F1 (Hungarian GP is called Finnish GP since there usually are huge number of people from Finland there, extra direct flights etc.), I completely agree with you, Budabest is beautiful city & girls definately are gorgeous!
And language sounds as crazy as Finnish does but there no single world with same meaning...

 

Is my third grade math failing me or is the gap between Canada (Jun8) and France (Jun26) not an even # of weeks?