Why is F1 moving from day races to night races?

Singapore Grand Prix

Talk about night racing and a Formula One fan is bound to talk about Singapore. The only night race on the calendar shines like a jewel in the night sky. A relatively recent addition to the Formula One calendar, the Singapore GP has generated a lot of interest and anticipation over the six years of its existence. There are various reasons that have added to the fan fair but more than anything it was the inaugural night race in Formula One in the history of the motor-sport.

But why is that Formula One increasingly moving from day races to night ones? Ask the Boss, is the answer. Bernie Ecclestone was the cornerstone behind hosting the Singapore spectacle despite concerns from a section of the teams and the media. Most of those initial concerns were directed towards the safety of the drivers racing under artificial lights and the glares blocking their vision. But that was taken care off by organizers. To add a statistic - Singapore GP has always had atleast one safety car on the track in the years of its existence. The idea of having a night race in itself was unique as not many people would have thought of racing under lights a decade ago.

But then Ecclestone's idea of the night spectacular wasn't just about giving something unique to F1 fans. It was also about retaining viewership of European audiences on the box and also about a marketing strategy to popularize Formula One. This gelled well with the image of Singapore which still remains a popular tourist destination for visitors heading to South-east Asia. The night life of the state adds quite a flavor to the whole set-up. Ask the teams about how they prepare for it and turns out they undergo a huge change from their regular time-table. From odd hours of having to wake-up, having a completely different body clock and extreme humid temperatures make the Singapore GP an even bigger and unusual challenge.

A similar experiment was done with Abu Dhabi GP as the race was termed as a unique-twilight race. The race would begin with the sun burning down and would end under artificial lights. Another extension came in this year's Bahrain GP which went on to host another night race. There have been talks of a few other circuits to hold night races. Australia and Russia are on the forefront of hosting a night race in 2015.

But while the night race sounds spectacular and is to an extent exciting to watch, there are other issues that come to forth on holding night races. Ecclestone's detractors feel that night races are just another way of commercializing Formula One. So according to them essentially the idea behind night races apart from getting Asian and European audiences glued is to persuade governments of South-east Asian countries or for that matter the Middle-east countries to pay a hefty amount for the privilege of hosting a Formula One race. But then, will these countries continue to pay a substantial amount to Formula One for the coming years? India and Japan have been prime examples of countries which have had trouble holding Formula One races with obvious reasons being that the sponsors were not able to take the debt any longer amid no government support and that Ecclestone wasn't ready to budge because he had better options to host races and bring in the cash.

Then there are concerns, such as FIA talking about going green on one hand and then going on to waste a huge amount of electricity on the circuits for night racing on the other.

So while the idea of holding a night race is quite exciting, the ulterior motive behind holding the whole spectacles seem to dampen the basic idea of holding it. Given the amount of money involved in Formula One, there could be drastic measures needed to clean up the act in the near future.