I just happened across this article and it got me thinking. F1 Debate: At what time of day should European races be staged? Whilst I don't think the races should be shortened as I enjoy battles playing out over a long period of time I do feel the start times could be moved around more. With the iPlayers of the world start times don't matter so much but watching live is always a little better. I personally prefer the early morning starts or early evening races, means I can fill my Sundays doing other things, especially on those days the sun comes out. FOMs obsession with 1pm (UK) start times doesn't really make sense to me. You guys?
I prefer the midday starts, but it's always fun getting up at 4/5am for Australia and co. I'm more of a night person, so I normally get up whenever the pre race show is about to start with every race (bar the Americas) so most of my day isn't taken by either waiting for it to start.
It's just a natural time to start given the structure of a race weekend for Motorsport in general. I would prefer to see practise on a Saturday and Quali and the race on Sunday.
It would be nice for euro races to start at 9am, so by 11:30 all done and rest of day to do what ever.
I prefer the early starts. I find the prospect of a race a distraction that often stops me from getting on with other things on a Sunday morning. It's nice to set the alarm five minutes before the race, make a cup of tea and get it out of the way early. That said I love the Brazilian GP being later. It's part of the tradition of the event (same with 4am starts for Australia and Japan). As for European starts, I think it would be nice if the shifted the times around bit to avoid clashes with other events. For example moving a race forward an hour if it's on the same time as Wimbledon. If it's not in the UK it would still be 1 o'clock local time any way. Shorter races? No thanks. And if they do do that they should think of a new name for each race, because they wouldn't be worthy of the title Grand Prix.
Kind of related.... I just found this. Dunno if it's true. But cold turkey may go longer.... The Formula One season will start later in 2016 with the opening race in Australia pushed back to April, organisers said on Wednesday. The Melbourne Grand Prix will maintain its traditional opening slot on the calendar but will be run on April 3 to "condense the season", which will end in November. It normally gets under way in mid-March. The revised date will see the Australian event follow Easter and take place after daylight savings, which means it will also start earlier in the day, although a final time has yet to be announced. The full 2016 Formula One calendar has not yet been released but it could be missing the classic Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
My opinion: Bernie's extended efforts to grab a bigger audience by increasing F1's appeal to the non-purist is at least part of the reason F1 finds itself in a more precarious, public-driven – and therefore inherently fickle – place. Of course, the purist is far more likely to get up at silly-o'clock. Messing around with start times to pander to a predominantly European audience was entirely in tune with some other (rather cheap) ideas designed to appeal to the ignorant. Double points. Medals. Sprinklers. Shortcuts. – Etc. The list could go on but further regurgitation subjects F1 to even more embarrassing derision…
+1 NO to shorter races.. if I want to watch a two race weekend I'll watch GP2.. F1 needs to change but that isn't one of them IMHO!
