Personally, I fear that Alonso has started a slow spiral slide into oblivion.
He left Renault originally because the company CEO is not an F1 fan and he couldn't get a long term commitment from the team.
The problems that came out during his time with McLaren included a suggestion that he tried to force Ron Dennis into giving him preferential treatment within the team.
I think that whether the suggestions are real or just perceived, may not matter in the end. If other perspective teams see him as being disloyal to his team, they wouldn’t want to bring him onboard.
Just like Scott Speed when he torpedoed any chance of getting on another team once he started criticizing he’s own team.
Now Alonso’s back at Renault even though it’s the same CEO.
Too bad to, he obviously has talent.

 

My understanding is that this is solely about prime time television.

 

I can believe it. It's also been widely reported that Alonso has an "out" after one year if the team and car don't perform to his satisfaction. And that he would go to Ferrari. Ferrari says no, but in any event, can you imagine Alonso and Kimi as team mates?

 

Well, last word I heard was that Australia was out even if they went to night format.

I realize that viewing times in Europe would be better, but does it make good sense to waste all that energy lighting up the entire track (1500 lights)? After all, they don't have headlights, and even Bernie isn't likely to make that change stick!

Let's see--freezing engine development for years, changing qualifying regulations, night races, traction control, killing traditional circuits, killing Indianapolis... Some I can understand and maybe even agree with, but night? He's as much as said he wants to see more crashes. He might just get his wish this year.

Ghoul

 

I'm really not trying to bash. I like both drivers. Generally, I am a fan of anyone without a prancing horse on their fire suit.

On further thought, Alonso truly does make the Renault more competitive just by his butt being in the cockpit and his hands on the wheel. Not to mention the psychological boost the theam may have by having a former champion to work for, who has made them winners in the past. So, while the move probably wasn't the best for himself, we benefit from it, if nothing else.

Night racing in cars without headlights is verging on insane. Doing it at F1 speeds almost certianly is. That place better be lit up like a football stadium, nothing like endurance racing tracks get lit. Lots of oval track races are run at night, but thost tracks seem more straightforward to light, and often they are on dirt tracks, a much more easy to read surface. Unfortuneately, I don't see a different solution to their percieved scheduling problem.

 

The thing I don't understand about night racing, at least for non-oval tracks, is the apparent lack of concern for spectator interest. Don't you think switching to a night race would turn some folks off from attending? With an oval you can see the entire track from pretty much every seat and can follow the headlights if nothing else, but the same can't be said for a good (i.e., non-oval) track. Besides, an F1 weekend is much more than a race; will they hold practices and quali at night as well? And what about all the race-related festivities?

 

I see drivers having depth perception issues with the lighted tracks. I just can't see uniform lighting around the track, unless they turn it into "Space mountain."

 

You guys don't follow MotoGP, do you? See if you can find clips of the Qatar race. Most riders judged it a success.

I see the point about local spectators. I think the Qatar race started at 11:00 PM local time.

http://images.motogp.com/en/motogp/p...02.htm?lang=en

Alan

 

Alan, MotoGP isn't street race, like Singpore is.

 

But why start name calling? All it is going to do is turn this into a NASCRAP thread about why my driver is better than yours. I like Hamilton and take offense to the name calling.

Lets just stick the races.

 

I didn't mean to imply that you were driver bashing. I agreed with your post and was just adding my opinion at the end.

Trying to do a night race on a road/street circuit is just insane. There is no way to do it correctly w/o some huge lights and money.

 

Upon a re-read of your post, I was an idiot for not realizing that was your intent. Sorry about that.

 

Yet more talk of night races....

This article says Bernie "is now also keen to host the Formula 1 race in China and South Korea at night." and "The South Korean Grand Prix is expecting to organize its first race in 2010."

Given the geography of all these night race talks it looks like CutnThrust is right about the motive being to adjust viewing times, presumably for the European audience.

 

I don't think they're exactly running on a particularly tight budget. The amount I would cost to ltght that track would be a drop in the bucket.

 

But the cost of doing so is usually up to the promoters, not Bernie.

 

Which is why IMS finally threw in the towel - they were losing money on every race. Even at $80-$105 for a seat out in the sun for one day, and $20 extra for qualifying, etc.

But the night races does seem to be a time zone thing. Selfishly, I'd like to watch a nice race from Korea in the middle of the day. But I'm also up at 2:30am watching them race in Melbourne, so I'm not the audience he's looking to bring back.

 

interesting, I didnt realize IMS was losing money on every race. The air time for each race doesn't really matter to me personally, considering I'll probably be DVRing each one and watching it later regardless of what time its on (I know, I'm a bad fan )

 

Bernie is about to price the sport out of existence.

Soon, only a few locations with money to burn (read OPEC countries) will have races, and F1 will lose their traditional fan base. Why should manufacturers care about supporting a sport, in countries that make up a minority of their sales?

Does Bernie care? Nope, not in the least.

 

From his actions it it would seem that he's trying to get as much out of F1 before he kicks the bucket without regard to what he leaves behind.

Have fun in Hell with your billions, Bernie.

 

I share your thoughts, and your greeting to B. E. And yes, it's entirely a scheduling thing, as I mentioned yesterday. His viewing base right now is Europe, and I guess the poor folks there don't have Tivo or its equivalent. Should we take up a collection for them?

I can't find the article now, but it said there would be 1500 lights. Here are other articles--and there are plenty more of them on the various F1 fan sites (just put "F1 night race," or something similar, in your search engine):

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=177358

http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/5422/2/

If you'd like to voice your opinion, there is a poll on this site:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/formula-1/index.html

It's in the middle of the page. This is a UK site, BTW. And interestingly enough, the lead story is about Alonso going to Ferrari:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/250320...ault-exit.html

Just think of it--the Ice Man vs. Hot Head. If he does go, it will be the last time I'll root for Ferrari...

Just before Bernie kicks off, he'll probably cancel Monaco. After all, he can easily replace it with the Kathmandu race.*

*Just kidding about Kathmandu. Or am I?

 

I imagine he just thinks of it like a business and figures he has the upper hand. There are more countries/circuits vieing for spots on the calendar than there is room. Demand is high -- he doesn't need to offer any bargains or deals and can afford to make otherwise unreasonable demands for the sake of his most prized audience.

 

I suppose, but the question still is:

Anyone know a hitman?

 

If there has been anything consistent in the ever changing world of F1 over the past 25+ years, it has been the vitriolic disdain hurled in Bernie's general direction.

I'm not defending the guy and nor could I . . . I don't agree with everything he has done but then again F1 is a tough political animal and poorly understood, especially in North America. He gets blamed for problems arising from the FIA, local politics, vica versa.

Night racing maybe a bad idea but who knows? I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to the ideal of Grand Prix racing so I'm as skeptical as anyone, but I'm also often resistant to change.

Based upon the way sporting events in this country are totally controlled by the needs of broadcasting and target marketing (anywhere from the 9 PM start time for Monday Night Football, 4 minute commercial breaks, and Ouch! everything to do with NASCAR), I find it a bit hypocritical to come down on the guy so hard for simply wanting to serve his primary tv viewing market. My only point is that I don't really see him as that different.

I'm braced and ready. Let the flaming begin.

 

Well I guess one difference in the examples you cite, is regional vs worldwide markets.

If Bernie considers F1 a regional market, then in essence, he's stating that he doesn't care about North Or South America. Canada and Brazil (who still have races) ought to be happy about that.

I wonder how the manufacturers feel about it?

 

Good question. Who knows. Maybe they see this as an opportunity to market their wares to a more casual F1 audience? Maybe at the end of the day it is still about ratings. If the ratings boost in Europe they reach more market share.

Either way, it does not appear that North America is part of the Asian Night race equation. We'll get a shorter end of the stick live TV wise.

I guess I'm cynical enough to understand why we don't factor. When one could not find a single paragraph written in any US Newspaper regarding the US Grand Prix, much less any Grand Prix, unless of course it was buried in the "also" quips on Page 11 . . . it becomes a bit easier to understand why anyone in F1 must've wondered why they were trying so hard to begin with.

The fact remains that despite our passionate differences, those of us who post on this thread are by far in the micro minority of US auto racing fans.
We should congratulate each other for at least knowing who Ecclestone is.