Straw Poll: Thursday in Singapore
By Edd Straw Thursday, September 25th 2008, 16:28 GMT
Autosport's Formula One editor reports on the daily mood-swing of the F1 press corp, straight from the Singapore media centre
When you fly 7000-odd miles across the world, it takes time to adapt the body clock to a new timezone. But the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix weekend is posing an entirely new problem. And with the dawn - or more accurately the dusk - of Formula One's new night-race era, comes the invention of a new timezone - Grand Prix Time (GPT).
And if there was a talking point in the paddock and the press room on Thursday, it was how the teams and drivers were adapting to the working hours.
Many have opted to continue operating on something that resembles European time. This means that staying up until four or five in the morning is no longer considered the behaviour of a hellraiser, and sleeping in until midday is only frowned upon by the puzzled hotel housekeepers who doubtless see F1 as the laziest sport in the world!
Everyone seems to have their own approach to GPT, but one driver doesn't have to change his thinking one iota is world champion Kimi Raikkonen, whose philosophy makes a lot of sense.
"I'm not worried about that," declared Kimi, a Finn through and through. "I sleep when I feel like it, I wake up when I feel like it."
This probably explains why Kimi didn't share the rest of the paddock's interest in timekeeping. His policy of sleep when you want is certainly an inspiring one, although there were suggestions that extending this to dozy spells during races before waking up to set fastest laps is a step too far.
The question of time-keeping was also put to the quartet of drivers at today's FIA press conference, attended by both McLaren and both Red Bull Racing drivers. When asked how they whiled away the time in the small hours in their hotel rooms, it was the perfect set-up for a David Coulthard special, who after a brief pause waded in: "I think I should get mine out of the way first as it is predictable," said Coulthard. "Karen is here with me, so I am just using the extra time."
The rest struggled to match that for an answer, with only Heikki Kovalainen of the other three enjoying similar privileges this weekend.
By this time, it was pushing 7pm Singapore time - usually the point where the paddock starts to thin out. But the day was still getting started as the track came alive under the floodlights.
Of course, the other main talking point was the new circuit and the prospect of racing at night.
Although the weekend proper doesn't kick off until Friday, there was a chance to see a car lapping at speed in the evening. Safety car driver Bernd Maylander - a DTM race-winner and no slouch behind the wheel - put in some laps under the floodlights. So, too, did the medical car driven by experienced sportscar racer Dr Jacques Tropenat.
From the onboard camera on Maylander's car, the track certainly looked busy - you can but imagine how short those straights will seem behind the wheel of an F1 car. Which isn't particularly promising when it comes to the problem of overtaking.
But what no-one could question was the effectiveness of the floodlights. Installed on the right-hand side of the track at four-metre intervals, it seemed as if we were enjoying permanent daylight - which was helpful given the unique timezone F1 has entered.
Felipe Massa is impressed and certainly isn't worried - provided, of course, the lights don't fail: "This circuit is a mix between Monaco, Valencia, Montreal and Melbourne - so for sure it won't be an easy race," he said. "Hopefully we won't have a big black out, because then it will be very difficult."
When the lights did briefly fade, you could sense the headline writers limbering up. Unfortunately for the disaster story, this was merely a test to see how long it took the backup generators to kick in.
So far so good, but it won't be until free practice kicks off at dusk tomorrow that the Singapore Grand Prix night-race dream comes alive. And despite the appetite for predicting disaster by the naysayers, most in the paddock agree that this is going to be one hell of a race weekend.
For all the right reasons.
http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/70836
, it will be interesting to see how the car's like them, aye!
...So don't you people think Belgium isn't significant for the F1 sport !!! 
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