The Grand Prix season has begun and while it follows it’s usual format in countries such as Australia (the opening race) the powers that be have decided to award a Grand Prix to a new country - Singapore. Singapore are taking it all very seriously and are building a quite impressive circuit taking in parts of the city existing roads and adding whole new sections of track. Nothing too unusual about this and certainly nothing to overly concern ‘Eco watchers’ over and above the usual issues of any motor sport or transportation. No, Singapore have decided that they need an extra little something to set them apart, they are going to race at night! But, I hear you cry, Formula 1 cars do not have any lights and the teams certainly won’t add any because they would add weight and will cause all sorts of problem for the aero-dynamics, So the organisers have come up with the solution, they are going to line the circuit with floodlights! A spokesman for the circuit stated that when the floodlights are on it will appear just like daylight down on the track and he has no concerns over safety if the power ever failed during the race because they have several backup generators that will be running during the race.
Is it just me, but why waste all that energy and all the overheads to the environment providing power and backup power to create an environment that will be just like daytime, why not just race during the daytime! It seems that gimmicks like this and the no doubt big money from television, advertising and sponsorships seem to cloud peoples judgement and any environmental issues just get pushed into the background.
If we are to make any real headway into the issues concerning our planet, we need to create a culture that puts the environment in which we live and depend on first and events such as these should be forced to find a way to run in an environmentally friendly manner.