Australian F1 sees light in late start to race

A Report in The Australian says that the Australian Grand Prix has officially entered the twilight zone, with next year’s race to start at 5pm and finish within half an hour of sunset to appease the sport’s demands for a bigger global broadcast audience.

Whether the move is sufficient to satisfy grand prix supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s demands for a night race is likely be known within the next six months, as the Victorian Government and Australian Grand Prix chairman Ron Walker enter negotiations on the future of the Albert Park race beyond 2010.

Mr Walker said yesterday the fate of the event would be decided before Premier John Brumby travelled to London to meet Mr Ecclestone in October.

He said he was hopeful of Melbourne keeping the race but again ruled out the possibility of a grand prix under lights at Albert Park.

“We have always said that it doesn’t suit Albert Park,” Mr Walker said. “We have 300ha of land here.”  “It is not just lighting the track itself, it is lighting the whole park to protect our patrons.”  “That is why we have decided, in the art of compromise and in order to preserve the race, to go to 5pm next year.”

“I believe we have gone a long way to appeasing Mr Ecclestone’s aims to increase the television audience worldwide.”  “It is daylight saving here and sunset occurs at about 7.30pm, so we are well within the parameters of running a night race without having a night race, if you know what I mean.”

This Sunday’s grand prix will be run at 3.30pm, the first time the event has departed from the sport’s traditional 2pm start.

For the London television audience, this will mean a pre-dawn start at 4.30am. In continental Europe, the lights will flash green at 5.30am.

Next year’s time is intended to secure a bigger European audience, particularly in the closing laps of the race, with London expected to see the chequered flag waved at 7.40am and Paris at 8.40am.

Mr Walker said the later time would also open up the event to a greater television market in Asia, which all equates to greater revenue for Mr Ecclestone’s rights-holding company, Formula One Management.

With the cost of the event under intense scrutiny – this year’s race is forecast to cost Victorian taxpayers $40million – Mr Walker defended the escalating and undisclosed license fee charged by Mr Ecclestone every year. He said the cost of building and dismantling the temporary circuit was running at about $30 million a year. The additional cost of running the event under lights is estimated at $60 million.

Singapore will stage the first night race in Formula One history this year.

The 5pm start in Melbourne was announced hurriedly by Mr Walker in response to the latest posturing by Mr Ecclestone, who in an interview with a British Sunday newspaper reiterated his warning that Melbourne would be stripped of the race when the current contract expired if it did not agree to hold the event at night.

The revised start time had been given in-principle support by Victorian Minister for Tourism and Major Events, Tim Holding, but was yet to be endorsed by Mr Brumby’s cabinet, Mr Walker said.

Despite the impression of policy on the run, grand prix organisers had been considering a later 2009 start well before Mr Ecclestone’s public comments.

“What we have done this year in shifting the race time from 2pm to 3.30pm has broken a nexus,” Australian Grand Prix chief executive Drew Ward told The Australian last week. “My view looking forward is not to settle into a routine; let’s look at it again for 2009 and maybe it goes a little later.”

Mr Ecclestone claimed to have had personal discussions with Kevin Rudd about the prospect of a night race, but appears to have gotten his leaders in a muddle.

“When Mr Ecclestone deals with 19-odd political leaders, sometimes the names get a bit confused,” Mr Walker said. “But he has talked to Mr (former premier Steve) Bracks last year and I believe the discussions will continue with Mr Brumby.

“I guess the foreplay has started, the demands have started and our responses.”

A Report by The Mole from The Australian