Radio Australia Today Editorial

Singapore F1 Grand Prix. Under Lights. Under Rain?

25 September 2008

I can already hear the titters of the the ghosts of the plantation owners in their white suits sitting in Raffles.

Tomorrow night is the start of a new era on Formula One racing. Singapore will host the first night races for the F1. Qualifying on Friday night, leading up to the big race on Sunday night. The fastest cars in the world will wind around the grand old streets in Marina Bay in what will also be Asia’s first F1 street race.

The noise though. Boy, the noise.

I remember when I first came to Melbourne. I was riding my bicycle to work one Sunday morning, and as I rode across a wide road, I had the scare of my life. The roar of car engines came from my left. I almost fell off the bike, so sure I was that the cars were only metres from me.

But no. It was simply that this wide street led directly to the Albert Park GP track, and that particular moment was when cars rounded the corner nearest to where I was, nearly three kiloetres away. And it was still THAT loud.

It will be loud Singapore, and if the owner of the Force India team is right, it has a good chance of raining during the GP and qualifying sessions too,because, he says, it ALWAYS rains at night in Singapore.

For the last two years we have broadcasted from the Melbourne GP, and had great fun doing it. Why not. We’ve spoken to Miss World Australia. So there’s the glamour. We’ve spoken to drivers. There’s glamour too, because these guys are impossibly good-looking. Not to mention the track girls. One suspects that at least some of them are more than what nature gave them, but what the hey.

(By the way, we only did the broadcasts after my conpunctions about supporting car racing in this time of global warming were allayed by guarantees that the GP plants more than enough trees to offset the emissions).

So it’s a big congratulations to Singapore. I hope it works out well for them. Shrinking revenues for the Australian race means that it is simply the tourist dollar that makes it viable here. But again that was what it was always about.

And as I said, it was fun, and who can’t use a bit more fun in their lives.

Raffles Boulevard will never be the same though.

– Phil