The Singapore Grand Prix organisers will be casting worried glances in the direction of Qatar at the moment.
Moto GP was due to kick of its 2009 season at the Gulf state with a night race, but it was abandoned due to heavy rain.
Qatar has an average of eight days’ rain per year, and if the race had taken place during the day, it would just have been a factor for the riders to deal with rather than stopping the race.
But because it was being staged under lights, the glare off the wet track would have made racing impossible.
F1 held its first night race in Singapore last year. The entire weekend was dry but the venue is no less susceptible to the occasional heavy rain storm.
Coming so soon after the early cancellation of the Malaysian Grand Prix due to a combination of rain and low light conditions due to a late start, F1’s controversial choice of start times could be in for further scrutiny.
Can any Moto GP fans offer any further thoughts on the cancellation of the race? How bad was the rain?
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Remojo (Tom)
12th April 2009, 23:06
I saw it on Eurosport, it was pretty torrential. The 125cc race was red flagged after 4 laps, Race Control said “Red flagged due to weather causing poor visibility”. It was mentioned that the race would have continued if it was daytime.
If this happens in Singapore, the fallout would be horrendous. A financial disaster. Ecclestone will likely blame the race organisers.
James Brickles
12th April 2009, 23:24
It was a bit ironic for a desert to have a tropical thunderstorm twice. But wet night races do look like a big hazard.
Robert McKay
12th April 2009, 23:27
Yeah, the rain was torrential. However I think the problem was more severe than that as the Moto GP plan was to red flag any racing in pretty much any rain conditions. OK if it’s just drizzling you can wait for the rain to stop and the track to dry, but it still upsets the schedules.
In the desert I guess the problem is just bad luck, if rain is so rare, but I think rain is probably much more possible in places like Singapore!
Oliver
12th April 2009, 23:34
Rossi’s words
HounslowBusGarage
12th April 2009, 23:34
Bernie, please take note!
Oliver
12th April 2009, 23:48
Its hard to move at night when its raining hard. Visibility would be very poor. Its bad enough when its daylight.
Robert McKay
13th April 2009, 0:39
Just out of interest, the race has been rescheduled for 1900 tomorrow (UK time) – still a night race, so hope the weather is better…
JohnBt
13th April 2009, 3:10
Did a check on the world general weather, found this…”a majority of the model forecasts … indicate a gradual weakening of La Nina through February-April 2009, with an eventual transition to neutral conditions.” La Nina is basically wet as opposed to El Nino which is dry. Rain is the present forecast for China’s race this weekend for F1, let’s hope it’s wrong.
iceshiel
13th April 2009, 4:56
if it rains in singapore it will be exceedingly difficult to reschedule it for the next day as the track is in the middle of singapore’s financial and shopping district.
however, it seldom rains heavily at night in this region. if it does rain, it’s a quick one. normally, torrential rain occurs in the late afternoon (look at sepang). consult the locals bernie!
saab
13th April 2009, 8:06
me think there are too much complains over start time. I have seen day time F1 races in Japan, Germany, Argentina, etc. been delayed or cancelled due to rain. it can happen anywhere at anytime. just because a race is run in day time doesn’t mean there will just be a short delay before everything is OK. the rainstorm yesterday in Qatar was massive. that’s weather. and frankly I don’t know if I would prefer sitting there waiting one, two, three hours for a possible restart or just have the thing cancelled and run the day after instead.
Robert McKay
13th April 2009, 10:59
I understand what you’re saying but the main thing I think is about keeping your options as open as possible. The main problems in Sepang and Qatar is that the star time means that if it does rain heavily you are rather stuck immediately. But starting those races at a sensible local time gives the opportunity to resume.
If you look at the history of F1 its actually very difficult to completely cancel a race (or even just shorten it) by weather alone because they have sophisticated drainage systems at the track. So whenever the massive deluge is passed its easy enough to resume relatively quickly again.
In both cases (F1 and Moto GP) the problem was more of light/visibility than the amount of rain/standing water. If that amount of rain had struck either track at 1300 local time it would only have required a short delay and then racing could have resumed.
Steve Jones
13th April 2009, 9:50
I heard an interview with one of the riders, who said that conditions became impossible as soon as the surface was wet. If they’d still been out when some standing water had been formed, then it would have been worse (if you can get worse than impossible!)
@saab: I don’t think anyone disputes what you say. The problem with Malaysia was that (a) the start time made it more than likely that there would be rain delays, and (b) any delay meant that evening would be approaching, and it would be too dark to continue the race – which is exactly what happened. In a day race, you can have a short delay, and then finish the race – it’s not an option for a late afternoon start.
harisim
13th April 2009, 11:10
I am a big fun of Moto GP since Max and Harada fight for top in 250 and Doohan dominate 500.And this year in my country I can’t watch nothing of that bicause EuroSport does not broadcast races.A big shame for funs here,in Bosnia.
A Singh
13th April 2009, 11:18
Well months before the Singapore grand prix was staged it was constantly asked whether the race would be safe if it rained. The organisers said it would be fine, probably because of their choice of light.
But in this case because it never rains the desert – and it did – the lights may have been unsuitable.
loo9n
13th April 2009, 12:08
it was a huge storm… besides the problem of standing water/light reflections.. there was extremely strong winds.. they had the same problem (of wind) last year’s motogp race at indianapolis..
SoLiD
13th April 2009, 13:36
Anybody knows who is broadcasting it live??
loo9n
13th April 2009, 14:05
SoLiD:
Al Jazeera Sport, the Qatari broadcaster
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th April 2009, 22:15
Never knew Al Jazeera had a sports channel!
James
13th April 2009, 14:35
I think the locations (1.5m high, edge of track) of the lights in Singapore would negate that. Qatar was unlucky though.
I notice that the Chinese GP is scheduled for a more reasonable time…
Brakius
14th April 2009, 6:45
Maybe Bernie and Co. can learn a little more from the NASCAR/IRL series in the USA. If there is to be a race held at night, it’s on a Saturday, with the exception of the Coca cola 600. The following Monday for that race is a national holiday anyway so it makes it just like a Saturday anyway. If it rains and a race has to be postponed, it is run the next day (Sunday), still a weekend where most everyone can attend/view the race.
I think that would be a little more acceptable than to cancel a race. There will always be circumstances out of the organizers control that will cause races to have to be cancelled or cut short, but they should really try in every way possible to make sure the fans get to see the show they paid for.
loo9n
14th April 2009, 10:41
Keith:
Yeah they do have an impressive setup..
3 free-to-air channels in addition to 4 subscription channels..
they broadcast motogp.. world superbikes.. race of champions..
and they brought us f1 from 2006 to 2008.. all free-to-air..
and even sometimes with original english commentary (itv)..
Pink Peril
14th April 2009, 11:11
I’ve often wondered why, with Bernies posturing about European-friendly timeslots, hasn’t he moved the races to a saturday timeslot? Surely then races could be shown on primetime sunday afternoon slots?
PJA
14th April 2009, 15:48
It’s not just torrential rain storms that could be a problem, remember the pre-season testing at Bahrain was heavily disrupted due to sand storms. Does anyone know how common sandstorms are and if they are more likely at certain times of year?
I recall during the Singapore GP last year although people praised the lighting setup some wondered how it would cope in wet conditions with potential glare/reflection from the wet track etc
Also when was the last time an F1 race was postponed or even cancelled altogether? I can only remember occasions when a race has been red flagged.
James
16th April 2009, 0:58
Ah Al-Jazeera – Hearts fans will be familiar with this as for almost every home game I went to last year the tannoy indicated we were being shown live on Al-Jazeera!