Sauber urges caution on F1 night races

Oct.5 (GMM) Peter Sauber has urged caution at the advent of the night racing era in formula one.

In the wake of the widely acclaimed Singapore grand prix, the first F1 race in history to be staged after sunset under floodlights, Bernie Ecclestone admitted he has set his sights on adding more night races to the future calendar.

"I would urge caution on this," Sauber, team founder and now a small shareholder and consultant of the BMW-Sauber squad, wrote in his column for the Swiss newspaper Blick.

The 64-year-old said the floodlit Singapore grand prix, amid the backdrop of the city-state's striking skyline, made aesthetic sense as well as providing a better live broadcast time for European viewers.

"But there are also tracks that would (at night) seem like no-man's land and look like a computer game. That was the impression I got from the pictures I saw of the MotoGP in Qatar," he added.

Living up to the unique Singapore atmosphere is not Sauber's only concern for future F1 night race hosts.

"An important question remains even after Singapore: what effect will the artificial light have when it rains? Change in F1 is definitely good, but we should not get carried away.

"In my opinion, a maximum of two night races per season would be enough."

Bernie fires back at 'circus' jibe

Oct.5 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone, the chief mastermind of the night racing concept for F1, has hit back at Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo's claim that the Singapore grand prix was akin to a "circus".

Also lashing out at the lack of overtaking opportunities at new street circuits, and the farcical safety car rules, Montezemolo said last week that "all this is humiliating for F1".

But Ecclestone, F1's chief executive, hinted to Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper that the attack by Montezemolo was perhaps to divert attention from Ferrari's woeful showing under the city-state's floodlights.

"If the Ferrari president is right about the Singapore grand prix being a circus," he said, "then we have to be grateful to him for providing the clowns."

The 77-year-old is undoubtedly referring to title rival Felipe Massa's botched pitstop, when the Brazilian ripped the fuel hose from the rig and pulled it the entire length of the pitlane.

Ecclestone continued to fire: "After the weekend Ferrari had, their president should have shut up and kept his head down. If Massa loses the world championship, he will know the team were responsible."

The British billionaire also slammed Ferrari's unique pitstop gantry lights system, used instead of a traditional lollipop, as "over the top".

"Why do you want to have some other piece of technology that can go wrong?" Bernie wondered.

Massa wants rethink of safety car rule

Felipe Massa is the latest driver to call for a change in the current safety car rules, believing Fernando Alonso’s win in Singapore was down to luck rather than judgment.

Current regulations close the pit lane to refuelling under a caution period, only reopening it when all the cars are backed up behind the safety car, and any cars that do refuel while the pits are closed receive a stop-go penalty.

“This specific race did highlight the fact that the safety car rules still need to be looked at very carefully, because the idea of Formula 1 is that the race should be won by the best driver and car combination on the day,” he told Ferrari’s website.

“I know we made mistakes, but the current system, as you can see from the final result of Sunday's race, means that the safety car can promote someone from the middle of the grid to the lead, not because of a clever strategy but simply by luck.

“I think the system needs to be changed and this problem was highlighted by the difficult nature of the Singapore track.”

Now Massa is 7 points adrift from championship leader Lewis, with 3 races to go.

“As for the championship it depends how you look at it: a seven point gap can be a lot or it can be a little,” he said.

“If you look at what happened to me in Singapore where my gap went from one point to seven so suddenly, then you have to consider it could easily go the other way as well.

“The most important element to consider is that we have a very good car.

"Without that, my chances would be much smaller.

“We have two good cars and we can try and get both of us to finish ahead of our rivals.

“It can be done and we need to think positive and we need to keep fighting to the last race."