Formula One news

Keep twilight starts, says Ecclestone

Bernie Ecclestone remains a keen fan of racing at twilight hours, despite issues raised at Sepang over the weekend. The first two races of the season in Australia and Malaysia both saw their start times modified for 2009, with the red lights going out at 5pm as a method of encouraging a greater number of European television audiences.

"I just have regrets about the rain," commented Ecclestone, who himself was caught in a rainshower in the paddock on Saturday. "I don't see anything wrong with the start time, we just didn't know about the rain - if we had started at 2pm on Sunday it would have rained as well."

A sudden shower catches out Ecclestone (centre) at Sepang

However, with many drivers unhappy and race organisers considering a change, the F1 supremo could face some stiff competition when it comes to retaining the later starting hour. "We should not have a twilight race," BMW boss Mario Thiessen said plainly. "Either we have a race without artificial lighting and have an earlier finish, or we have a night race and you can go on until when you want - but it was on the edge here. An abandoned race is definitely not what we want to see, but that is not depending on the time of the day, because we had a delayed start in São Paulo at 2pm as well. What we have to understand is that here, generally in Malaysia, the probability of rain rises in the afternoon."

Renault's Flavio Briatore, on the other hand, thought otherwise: "This was about the weather," he told Autosport. "You can control the start time, but you cannot control the weather. I believe that, if it wasn't for the weather, then the timing was great for Europe and, for sure, the people watching the racing had fun."

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