/ 30 October 2009

F1 expirements with day-night race

This year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be Formula One’s first experiment with a day-to-night transition.

The race will begin in the twilight at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday and finish in the early evening. Lights will be on from the start of the race to ease the transition and not create a sudden change in viewing conditions.

Drivers are confident that there will not be a repeat of the opening race of the season in Australia, when the race finished at dusk and the drivers complained of sunset glare and a rapid cooling of track temperature which greatly reduced grip levels late in the race.

”I don’t think there will be any problems,” Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen said. ”It might look a little bit different at some point when the sun disappears, but the lights — at least in Singapore — were so good that you hardly see the difference between day and night.”

Track temperature in the desert heat of Abu Dhabi should also allay the effects of evening cooling.

”In Australia, the track temperatures were different,” Renault driver Fernando Alonso said. ”The track temperature at the start of the race will maybe be 50 degrees, so it will never be cool enough to give you problems warming up the tires.” — Sapa-AP