Abu Dhabi considers 'unique' start time

[sepulamb]

Hey guys this is my first post here. Im a mechanical Engineering student have been stalking these forums for a while now so thought I make an account.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74388
This might not seem as interesting at the start but I honestly believe that the race could be on a saturday with a friday qualifying..
The reasons I think so are :-
The Weekend at the UAE is friday and saturday
All international races at Dubai Autodrome have always been on friday/sat (some of which are run by FIA)
I doubt alot of people would visit the race on a weekday when everyone is at work.
Something similar happens in monaco..

[blobslosak]

Will be interesting to see when the race is though, and what Bernie decides is best for the Euro audience he seems to be prioritising.

I think at Monaco friday practice is held on the thursday, and then the rest of the weekend is normal.

[Rob W]

Just a point... the people who attend the race aren't particularly important to the running of an F1 race - which relies mostly (like, over 90%) on people watching on TV... They are however to the local promoter/track who, historically, have little or no sway over the operations of F1.

The local work-week ultimately means little to the people who run F1 - all they care about is the people watching on TV. ... and there are plenty of people wanting to take up a race spot on the calendar should any race try to rock the boat too much.

[Dukeage]

A twilight race could be an option - the sun will set at 5:43 local time on the Sunday. One option could be a race that starts very late on Sunday, ends on the Monday and would be around an 8pm start in the UK. Abu Dhabi as a final race venue wasn't particularly thought out well, and Korea could be worse - it would be sensible to end the race in North America or Europe under lights so that it's an 8:30pm start in WET, 9:30pm start in Central Europe and sensible in North America.

[ISLAMATRON]

Mostly everybody is at the mosque for friday prayers just after noon... wont get much of a crowd then for qualifying

[CHT]

Mostly everybody is at the mosque for friday prayers just after noon... wont get much of a crowd then for qualifying

they will still be praying on sat and sun afternoon..

[ISLAMATRON]

Mostly everybody is at the mosque for friday prayers just after noon... wont get much of a crowd then for qualifying

they will still be praying on sat and sun afternoon..

individual daily prayers are a 10 minute action each(5 per day), congregational friday prayers are a 2 hour occurrence.