Singapore night race will not be dark…
16th April 2008, 21:09 by Keith Collantine 27 Comments »
Here’s a new picture showing just how bright the lighting will be at the inaugual Singapore Grand Prix this year:
The Singapore race organisers trialled a new lighting system recently along St Andrew’s Road in front of the Padang – where the cars will hit 260kph during this year’s race.
More pictures below:
They’ve also tested out the lighting system that will be used for flag warnings:
Concerns have been expressed by drivers and fans about the safety of racing at night – but from these pictures it looks as though the race will be very well-lit.
According to the organisers the pit building is 65% complete and resurfacing work on parts of the circuit are and resurfacing work on part of the track has begun.
The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix will be held on 26-28th September. It will be F1′s first night race and is expected to be followed by Malaysia in 2009 and possibly several other Asian circuits in the near future.
No news on the environmental impact of running all those lights though…
High resolution pictures
Singapore night race lighting trial 1
Singapore night race lighting trial 2
Singapore night race lighting trial 3
Singapore night race lighting trial 4
Singapore night race lighting trial 5
harrison said on 16th April 2008, 21:54
No news on the environmental impact of running all those lights though…Don’t worry. By then all the cars will be powered by compressed air.
Fer no.65 said on 16th April 2008, 22:12
with all the energy problems the world has, this is just SO pointless that’s hard to explain…
it’s even more pointless now that we see the how dark (ironic) the race will be… it’s like daylight, but it consumes electricity… xD
bigotez said on 16th April 2008, 22:15
Do you have any high resolution versions of these pictures?
Keith Collantine said on 16th April 2008, 22:20
Nope (I would have put them up if I had!) but I’m trying to find some. If anyone has any do let me know through the contact form or Flickr as usual.
Haplo said on 16th April 2008, 22:55
You could at least have uploaded higher res…
Keith Collantine said on 16th April 2008, 22:58
Haplo – I don’t get what you mean, this is the highest resolution picture I’ve got right now. If I had a better one I would definitely have used it, but this is the first photograph I’ve seen that gives a good impression of how well illuminated the track will be.
Keith Collantine said on 17th April 2008, 0:06
Just got some better quality pictures now, big thanks to D Winn for the tip! Have added them to the post.
Wesley said on 17th April 2008, 0:08
I have to agree with Fer no.65.What a waste of energy,with all the talk of spending less in Formula 1 and now this.I admit it will be interesting but,if the track is lit up like daytime,what is the use?So,we have to get up in the wee hours to watch it,I can deal with that.
Thanks for the pics Keith.
D Winn said on 17th April 2008, 0:18
It would be better to see more than about 60 metres of lights.
It gives the impression of glare against the dark background, but I expect it will be ok when they get the other 1484 lights added to these 16 !
D Winn said on 17th April 2008, 0:27
Ignore my last contact Keith, pix are OK now
Bruno said on 17th April 2008, 1:14
The track will definetly be well lit… but what might not please the sponsors is the view of the stands and spectators. I don’t tink we’ll see much of them. Guess we just have to wait and see ! I’ll propbably be working as a marshall for that race so that won’t be a concern for me aha aha ha !!!
I wonder if the governement is paying back their carbon emissions for the race… Big bill in perspective.
John Beamer said on 17th April 2008, 7:33
Please let’s not wheel out the energy argument! The energy required to power the lights is a microfraction of that required to run an F1 race … get real.
Keith Collantine said on 17th April 2008, 7:35
I didn’t know that John – have you got any figures on it?
milos said on 17th April 2008, 8:33
I still do net get this debate on the enviromntal aspect of lighting up a race track …
if all the people who go t the race stay home, they will turn on lights at home, turn on their TVs, aircons
I think we should also ask UEFA and FIFA to immediatelly ban football matches under floodlights …
Oliver said on 17th April 2008, 11:43
John we are not talking 60 watts light bulbs here, if u get the exact number of generators that will be powering this lighting systems and the amount of power they generate, you will know for sure that its much more than what the cars will generate. Although all these carbon neutral talk is ********. What i feel is more important is the added cost an organiser has to be burdened with in addition to hosting rights. It will cost a lot to maintain these lighting systems.
I’m really curious if these pictures with the poles on the road is going to be part of the race track as it is right now, cause that looks very dangerous. Or are they going to put fences cause that will make for a very tight race track. Monaco all over again