F1 to Race at Night?
Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has come out and stated some of the major problems he sees in F1. One of those was the time at which races are held. He said:
Why always (start the race at) 2pm? It’s a stupid time – to watch a Grand Prix you have to f*** up your whole Sunday.
Surely Flav wouldn’t want the races any earlier in the day? That could only leave the possibility of F1 racing at night. Being located in the Asia-Pacific region, I don’t see this happening at all. Down here, due to the time difference, most F1 races start at 10:30 at night. Delaying this by 4 or 5 hours would wipe out a huge section of the audience in this region – and the Asian region is a region F1 is so desperate to establish itself in.
The other problem is when you consider the television schedule of areas in the same time-zone as the race itself. Having a race at 6 or 7pm wouldn’t work as these are prime-time spots. Unfortunately, most networks don’t see Formula One as prime-time television.
At the end of the day a 1pm or 2pm race start works pretty well, so it’s unlikely that it will ever change..
