Webber raises concerns over night racing
Added on Monday, April 20th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Webber raises concerns over night racing
Australian F1 driver Mark Webber has sympathised with his counterparts in MotoGP following the postponement of Sunday’s night race in Qatar as the controversy over late racing continues in both sports.
A sudden rain shower at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, just minutes before the race was due to begin, forced the postponement of the opening round of the 2009 MotoGP season after agreements between organisers and riders that the race would not take place in the wet due to concerns over track glare under the circuit’s floodlights.
The race did eventually take place after a 24 hour postponement but questions have since been raised over the viability of night races in future, particularly after similar problems at the Formula One Grand Prix in Malaysia forced the cancellation of that race just a week before.
Red Bull Racing driver Webber, who is also leader of the GPDA, a representative body for F1 drivers, is believed to have had a heavy influence in the cancellation of that race after stressing his safety concerns and yesterday expressed concerns over the F1 night race in Singapore following the incidents in Qatar.
“It looks like those guys couldn’t run at all,” he said at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix
“I haven’t spoken to any of the riders but probably before Singapore I will have a chance to talk to some of them.
The problems over driver and rider safety have been put in the spotlight this season as organisers, keen to tap into lucrative markets by holding events in Asia and the Far East, attempt to push back the start times of races to appease European television audiences. This however creates visibility problems for drivers and riders as the race progresses, particularly in poor weather conditions.
At present, Qatar is the only scheduled “night race” on the MotoGP calendar whilst F1 also hosts a floodlit race on a street circuit in Singapore, although both the start times for Australian and Malaysian events have both been pushed back this season to 5:00pm local time.
“I was surprised, but those guys are like us,” added Webber. “They will race if they can and if they can’t, they can’t.
“The glare must have been very, very difficult for them and they were in a situation where they had to go a day later, which was a nice luxury they could have.
“Not sure we could do that in Singapore.”
Webber also said the drivers were already keen to talk to the FIA about the twilight starts that caused visibility issues in Melbourne and Malaysia.
“Melbourne was more of a concern than Malaysia for us because Malaysia was only a problem because of the rain,” he said.
“We’re in constant contact with the FIA and the drivers and teams are working out what is the best thing to do.”
