The fever for Formula 1 began some time ago, when its numbers, both in spectators who followed the races on television and in economic income, grew exponentially. With the development of the Great Circus, it has been possible to see a clear trend in the places where the tests are held and, above all, in the timetables.
With the aim of getting a larger audience , the highest category of motorsports tried to square the competitions with moments in which the fans were attentive to the screens, and that is how many appointments changed their usual start time.
However, in full expansion of Formula 1, directors and managers choose to visit more and more new unexplored sites to check their market growth capacity, and although it is nothing new, another dynamic is observed, that of the races at to become night.
The Great Circus announced its official calendar for the 2023 season in mid-September and, as expected, the grand prizes of Qatar and Las Vegas were included, both with a night schedule, even on Saturday, as will happen in the North American country.
In 2008 , Formula 1 held its first appointment under the artificial light of the floodlights in Singapore, on a day marked by Crashgate and the victory of Fernando Alonso, and just one year later the second was also held in Abu Dhabi. try with the moon high in the sky.
From then on, and until 2014 , they were the only races at night, but on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Bahrain Grand Prix, all those visits to the Sakhir circuit would be celebrated that way. This was the case for six seasons, when the three appointments remained immovable, some of them even decided the champion, as in 2014 and 2016, but there were still more to come.
In 2020 , due to the pandemic, travel to Asian countries was almost impossible, so Singapore was dropped from the schedule, but instead a second race was included on the Bahrain track for the oval-like configuration to host the Grand Sakhir’s award a single week after the initially scheduled test.
A campaign later, Marina Bay did not return either, and the alternative race in Bahrain was not held either, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia were added, two weekends near the end of the year that decided much of the title between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen .
In the 2022 season, Singapore returned, but Qatar left, since it was a patch that Formula 1 put on a course still affected by COVID-19, although, without a doubt, the year with the most night races is yet to come.
By 2023 , there will be up to six grand prix nights, which is a record for the Grand Circus, which has gone in just 12 seasons from only seeing the single-seaters in sunlight to having a quarter of its championship under Moon.
Season | Number of night runs | Great prizes |
2008 | 1 | Singapore |
2009 | 2 | Singapore y Abu Dhabi |
2010 | 2 | Singapore y Abu Dhabi |
2011 | 2 | Singapore y Abu Dhabi |
2012 | 2 | Singapore y Abu Dhabi |
2013 | 2 | Singapore y Abu Dhabi |
2014 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2015 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2016 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2017 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2018 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2019 | 3 | Bahrein, Singapur y Abu Dhabi |
2020 | 3 | Bahrein, Sakhir y Abu Dhabi |
2021 | 4 | Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi |
2022 | 4 | Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi |
2023 | 6 | Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Qatar, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi |
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