F1 Fanatic

For a while now Bernie has been talking about the need for Australia to hold the race much later in the day so that there can be a bigger audience in Europe watching it on TV. The drivers always mention how much they enjoy the Australian GP, both in the days it was in Adelaide, and now Melbourne. Its quite obvious that Formula One now is more about the money than anything else, and therefore the biggest influence on IF Australia can continue to hold an F1 event will be the ability to hold a race at night.
Melbourne would not spend the money on lighting around Albert Park, and to be honest, it would be disgusting to see something like that built around it. The same for Adelaide.
So the question is, how can a compromise be made? Would the difference of a few more hours help keep it in Australia? And if so, what about the option of Perth holding it? Perth is 3 hours behind the eastern states during the summer, and maybe they could hold a twilight race, as it currently is in Melbourne (although I am not sure what time it gets dark in Perth in March).
If the time difference could help, is there any place suitable in Perth or near the west coast for a street circuit?

@ivz – I think your post is a total over-reaction to Bernie’s comments. How many times have we seen Bernie make a single demand of a circuit with multiple issues shortly before their contract is due to be renewed, only for that circuit to resolve all of their issues and get a contract extension without actually fulfilling Bernie’s original demand? The answer is “plenty of times” – we’ve seen it everywhere from Sepang to Silverstone.

Every year, the public and politicians question the need for the Australian Grand Prix, and there’s usually some newly-elected poltician claiming that they support the race, but they’ll be playing hardball with Bernie to get a better deal. It has happened for at least the past two years, and probably in 2009 as well. Nothing has ever come of it. This is just Bernie’s way of getting Ron Walker to tidy up the management of the race, so that when it comes time to re-negotiate, they don’t have to tolerate failed, but nevertheless self-important politicians (like, say, Lord Mayor Robert Royle) using the race for their own purposes.

By the time 2015 comes around, all of this malarkey will be forgotten.

oh, and yeah.. the problem isn’t with Bernie, it’s with our government and their crazy decision making

These Bernie and Ron Walker stories come along every March, and they’re a sure sign that the season’s about to start! I don’t agree that “nothing has ever comes of it”, as the Melbourne race moved later in the day a couple of years ago, and plenty has come of Bernie’s demands at Silverstone, for example.

But it doesn’t matter to me what time the race is, now that I’ll only be watching highlights of it. So far it’s only here in Britain and Japan that (I’m aware) F1′s been sold to subscription TV. But I suspect it’s just the start – surely there’ll be more juicy TV deals for Bernie, all across Europe. All this business about European TV ratings never made much sense to me – even less so now.

A late-afternoon / evening race means lots more time for support races if you’re watching at the track though.

It’s really, really simple. Sydney needs to fight hard for the GP. We want it because Melbourne has it, and if Sydney wants it, Melbourne will move heaven and earth to keep it.

Come on Sydney, let’s fight to have the GP here to make sure it stays in Melbourne!