Wake Up to Night Vision

The advent of a night race under floodlights on a waterfront street circuit in Singapore promises to enhance the commercial image of the formula one business, consolidating the sport's claim to be a properly inclusive world championship rather than simply a European series supplemented by a few token events in far-flung corners of the globe.

This race in one of Asia's most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities is emblematic of Bernie Ecclestone's relentless determination to make formula one bigger, brighter, more prestigious and more exclusive than any other sporting spectacle on earth. Even by the standards of some of the greatest and longest-established races on the calendar Singapore promises to be a high octane experience with a mood and ambiance to match European classic events such as Monte Carlo and Monza.

Before the 1970s races outside Europe had intermittently ducked in and out of the championship schedule. This year half of the season's 18 races will take place outside Europe. With South Korea, Abu Dhabi and India all queuing to join the party the financial pressure is steadily increasing on bedrock "establishment" races such as the British and French grands prix to keep pace with this frantic spending spree.

This is just how Ecclestone likes it. His formula one management group takes a 53% share of the sport's commercial rights revenue, which includes the race promotion fee estimated to be as much as $25m a year from some of the newest events on the calendar, almost $10m more than that generated by the older races in Europe.

Races outside Europe had only been occasionally included on the schedule in the decade following the inauguration of the official world championship in 1950. Argentina staged its first race in 1953 on the back of Juan Manuel Fangio's emergence as the country's most famous international sportsman.

From 1950-59 the Indianapolis 500, the prestigious oval track race which was the highlight of the US calendar, was also included as a qualifying round of the world championship. The fact that there was almost no interchange of competitors between this event and the main body of the formula one contest was neither here nor there. This strange state of affairs ended in 1959 when the first proper US grand prix took place at the Sebring Aerodrome circuit in Florida.

The US grand prix became firmly established on the championship schedule in the 1960s. It took place at California's Riverside Circuit in 1960 and then moved to the Watkins Glen track amid the spectacular pine forests of upstate New York, where it remained from 1961 until 1980.

Yet it was the development of a street race through Long Beach in California that proved the most significant illustration that there were like-minded entrepreneurs in the US who shared Ecclestone's commercial edge. The race was the brainchild of Chris Pook, an

expatriate British travel agent who could see the potential to change the southern Californian city's dowdy image as a retirement haven. The race was a huge success from 1976 until 1983, when Pook concluded that Bernie's tab had become too costly and he switched to running a Champ Car event.

Brazil joined the championship schedule in 1973, Emerson Fittipaldi winning the inaugural race at the wheel of a Lotus. Brazil had their own Chris Pook in the form of the charismatic Antonio Scavone, who laid the foundations for Sao Paulo by staging a series of winter events for formula two cars at various Brazilian circuits over the previous couple of years.

Scavone lived just long enough to see his dream of a world championship race at Interlagos come true in 1973. Later that year he was among more than 100 passengers who perished when a Varig Boeing 707 crashed on the approach to Orly airport near Paris.

In the decade that followed the formula one circus pitched camp behind the iron curtain for the first time with the advent of the Hungarian grand prix at Budapest in 1986.

The Chinese grand prix was introduced at Shanghai in 2004 and the inaugural Turkish race on the Asian side of the Bosphorus a year later. Ecclestone is still driving formula one

relentlessly, foot hard to the throttle, and at 77 years old remains determined to cram the calendar with more than 20 races on the basis that there is already too much testing. He feels that the effort and expenditure required to thrash round empty circuits in the middle of winter chasing fractions of a second in lap times would be better spent generating more revenue by adding extra races to the schedule.

In the meantime the British sporting calendar would not be complete without Ecclestone warning the owners of Silverstone that they will lose their race after 2009 unless the circuit is suitably upgraded for the future. With new races in Valencia and Singapore signed up for this year and Abu Dhabi waiting in the wings Ecclestone is demanding improvement to the pits and paddock before any contract extension will be granted.

Asked what would happen if Silverstone's owners, the British Racing Drivers' Club, failed to meet his requirement he replied crisply: "We won't be here. They have known for five or six years exactly what we want."

The investment in Singapore's new circuit proves exactly what he is talking about.

Watch this

Red Bull's Mark Webber drives Singapore's circuit YouTube.com search: Webber + Singapore