Formula One (F1) supremo Bernie Ecclestone has hinted Australia should consider staging their grands prix at night to boost their chances of extending their current F1 licence, reports said on Saturday.
Ecclestone wants to include a number of night races on the F1 schedule as early as next season.
He believes the current Australian race does not produce big enough European television ratings because of the early-morning viewing schedules.
And he has indicated that a decision to hold the race at night will count in Melbourne’s favour when the time comes to consider an extension of its F1 licence beyond 2010.
Ecclestone was quoted in Saturday’s Australian newspaper as saying about the possibility of Melbourne staying on future F1 circuits by shifting to a night race: ”We won’t say that, but yes, they should think about it.”
The F1 boss is delighted with the attendance figures the Melbourne street race generates.
”I saw something in the papers today saying there was nobody here yesterday,” Ecclestone said in a radio interview on Friday.
”There’s no other circuit in the world on a Thursday that gets more than 45 000 people,” he said. ”I mean, it’s completely crazy that people are talking about this.”
Ecclestone said Melbourne is not in danger of losing the race because it has held it for 12 years.
He cited Monaco, which had held the race without interruption since the 1950s, as an example of another city that has held the race for a long time.
Ecclestone said there are up to six other countries keen to host an F1 race, but Melbourne’s bid to extend the contract beyond 2010 will be considered on merit just as it had been in the past.
”So, obviously, that will be taken into consideration,” he said.
Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairperson Ron Walker, who floated the idea of night racing this week, insists Ecclestone is not delivering Australian race organisers an ultimatum.
”Mr Ecclestone is not saying either you take it or you don’t,” he said. ”This has nothing to do with the renewing of our contract.”
The Australian newspaper said there is no doubt that the push for an evening race at Albert Park is coming from Ecclestone rather than Walker.
”While shifting the race to night would do nothing to improve the bottom line of the race for Victorian [state] taxpayers — an estimated Aus$10-million in lights will add to the cost of an event that is this year expected to lose Aus$35-million — the benefit to F1 coffers in showing the race at a watchable time in Europe would be substantial,” the newspaper said.
Walker told the Australian: ”About one billion people could watch this in Europe, at a proper hour, rather than getting up at 5am, if we embraced night racing. I am not saying for a minute it is going to happen, but you have got to consider all things to improve the sport.”
He said there is much work to be done before any decision is taken, including conducting a feasibility study to determine whether the circuit could be sufficiently lit to hold a F1 race safely. — Sapa-AFP