Nigel Roebuck: Fifth Column

So... Formula 1 at night. In Melbourne Bernie Ecclestone said it was his wish that 'all Asian races' (plus the lone Antipodean grand prix) should be run in the evening, and Bernie's wishes, as we know, tend to be realised.

On that side of the world, we currently have races in Australia, Malaysia, China and Japan, and more will surely follow in countries such as Singapore and India. In the fullness of time we could be talking about close to half of the world championship.

Ecclestone's notion makes absolute sense. Since 1996, when the Australian Grand Prix, sadly, left Adelaide for Melbourne, it has been the first, rather than the last, race of the year, and Bernie has been displeased that the season opener inevitably, by virtue of time change, attracts a relatively tiny TV audience in Europe. Let's face it, only a fanatic gives up a night's sleep, and fanatics do not a mass audience make.

Not surprisingly, broadcasting times have a very considerable effect on TV figures. Year after year, the Brazilian Grand Prix attracts a larger number of European viewers than any other, and why? Because it begins in early evening, when folk are anyway sitting down to watch the box: a lot of 'casuals' see the action from Interlagos preparatory to discovering the latest unpalatable doings in Coronation Street, or whatever.

That being so, night races in the East - so long as they were broadcast at some point during the European day - would inevitably pick up far greater audiences than is the case at present, and that would delight sponsors as well as fans. Given the awful daytime humidity of places such as Malaysia, evening races should also have appeal for those on the spot, not least the drivers, who have been known to sweat off half a stone in the course of 200 miles at Sepang.

When Ecclestone first brought up the question of night races, Fernando Alonso was one of several drivers who said he needed to be convinced that satisfactory lighting could be achieved. Night races have been commonplace in both NASCAR and Indycar racing for years, and while lighting an oval is obviously simpler, it's worth remembering that the Champ Car (nee CART) race at the Cleveland airfield circuit has been run at night, and without any reported problems.

I couldn't help but smile when the question of F1 night races first came up, for here was yet another example of the 'Americanisation' of grand prix racing.

As I have written many times, it has long been fashionable in F1 to denigrate motor racing on the other wide of the water, to suggest that the drivers are second-rate (at best), that the technology is primitive, and that there is too much emphasis on showbiz.

Years ago, over lunch in a Surrey pub, I got into a heated debate with Ken Tyrrell over the question of 'yellows' in American racing. Back then, if there were a very serious accident in a grand prix, the red flag might - might - be deployed, bringing the race to a temporary halt while wreckage was cleared, but a 'yellow', with the cars trailing round behind a pace car, was unknown.

Tyrrell thought that was as it should be. It was unfair, he argued, that a driver who had built up a substantial lead should have it wiped away because of an incident not of his making. "You're a purist, Nigel," he said. "I'm amazed you would think any differently."

Well, yes, I was - and am - a purist, and so emphatically was Ken. But if my interest in Indycar racing has largely evaporated since the CART-IRL split of 10 years ago, prior to that I was an enormous fan, and attended a good many races, including several Indianapolis 500s, when the race was still in its heyday.

I had many times witnessed major accidents in the US, and invariably been impressed by the efficient manner in which the safety systems clicked into play. Particularly striking was the discipline of the drivers as they slotted in behind the pace car.

Tyrrell wouldn't have it: "The thing is," he frothed, "it's just not fair!" Time to think of a different tack. "Well," I said, finally, "look at Mario [Andretti]. He's raced both F1 and Indycars - and he's a purist, too. And whenever that question comes up, his answer is that sometimes you lose, and sometimes you gain, but over a season it all evens out..."

Ken still wasn't convinced - until one year he was invited to the Indy 500. At the next race I was invited to tea. "I can see what Mario's getting at," he admitted, "and it's good for the fans, because things might have got boring, and they get a whole new race when there's a restart. "Maybe it is something we should look at..."

Eventually, of course, the practice was adopted for F1 - but care was taken not to be seen to be aping an American practice. They had the 'pace car', so we had the 'safety car', and so on.

In 1994 the Japanese GP, run in torrential conditions, was stopped after 13 laps, following an accident to Martin Brundle's McLaren in which a marshal was seriously injured. Later there was a restart, now with 37 laps to the flag, and the final results were to be decided by adding together the drivers' times from each part.

As a result the spectators had not a clue as to what was going on. Damon Hill, who had been 6.6 seconds behind Michael Schumacher when the race was stopped, got ahead in the second part - but was he really ahead of him on aggregate time?

Meantime Jean Alesi and Nigel Mansell fought over third place, and on the last lap the Williams passed the Ferrari, Nigel punching the air as he went over the line.

Jean, meantime, was laughing himself silly: he knew the results were to be on aggregate time, and had safely let Mansell through. Nigel, fresh from two years of Indycar racing, had subsconsciously assumed the restart to be 'a new race'.

These days the 'safety car' is intrinsic to F1 - indeed, many feel is it often deployed unnecessarily, but in this era of absolute 'safety first', that is perhaps inevitable.

In other ways, too, we seem to be following American trends. According to Hermann Tilke, the latest thinking is away from no-expense-spared autodromes for new grands prix, and towards street circuits, such as have recently proliferated in the Champ Car series.

In the matter of tyres, F1, like Champ Car, is now supplied only by Bridgestone, and this season it is compulsory to use both the available compounds in the course of a race, just as it has been in Champ Car for the last year.

Maybe, then, in future F1 should be a little less dismissive of other forms of motor racing, particularly in the US. It's a fact that 'Indycar racing', in its bisected state, is a very pale shadow of what it was, but certain aspects of it have lent themselves well to grand prix racing, and that should be acknowledged.

We do, of course, have some innovations of our own. Ye Gods, we're now talking about brake lights in F1, and that puts me in mind of a cautionary a tale Chris Amon told about following Jack Brabham in a Tasman race in the '60s.

"I was very young, and Jack was a god to me. We're on this long straight, and I'm right behind him, and thinking, 'No way I'm going to brake until he does.' We're getting to the end of the straight, and I'm thinking, 'Christ, he brakes late...', and then a few yards further on, 'Jeez, he brakes late!'

"Finally, I chickened out, and I just made it round the corner. Old Jack, meantime, goes straight on, and over the bank! After that, I decided in future I was going to brake when it felt right to me..."