SUSO

First Night

Night racing and the controversy of Mr. Tilke.

It’s the 800th Grand Prix since the format’s inception, the first in Singapore for 35 years, the first on an Asian street circuit, a pivotal race for the Driver’s Championship, there’s a forecast of torrential rain, and, most importantly, it’s the first Formula 1 race ever to be held at night: is this weekends spectacle destined to be remembered as rampant globalisation-inspired innovation, the death of Formula 1 or the birth of a brave new era? 

It will require 3,180,000 watts to light the track - not exactly a feather in the cap of F1’s green credentials - but the controversy doesn’t stop there. Lurking in the background, casting a proud eye over his latest creation, Hermann Tilke, the track designer, will be on tenterhooks. The multi-millionaire racing driver-cum-engineer-cum-architect provided the blueprints for all 5 of the new races on the calendar: Bahrain, China, Valencia, Turkey and Singapore.

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Categories Design Sport Tags F1 Sport Design

By on 25/9/08