Let's not too excited for now, eh? Looks like its not a done
deal yet... Today's "source" is a bit too quick off the mark
then?
No deal yet on Singapore race, says
Ecclestone
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone
denied on Monday that Singaporean property tycoon Ong Beng Seng had
secured the rights to host a grand prix in the island state.
"We haven't entered into any agreement with anyone at the
moment," the Briton told Reuters.
Ecclestone, 76, said he had been talking to interested parties in
Singapore for three years but rejected media reports in the Far
East suggesting that Ong's Hotel Properties had secured the
rights.
"I don't know anything about it," he said.
Ecclestone, who would not say who he was talking to in Singapore,
added that he was keen on a night-time race but no announcement was
imminent.
"I think it would be good, I was the one who suggested night races
to them (the Singaporeans), and not only them but other countries
in other parts of Asia," added the commercial rights holder.
Shares in Hotel Properties rose as much as 15.8 percent on Friday
on local market talk about the deal.
Formula One has 17 races this season but Abu Dhabi is due to host a
race, the second in the Middle East, from 2009 on a street circuit
using part of the harbourside. South Korea has also been scheduled
for 2010.
NIGHT RACES
Ecclestone has talked before about night races in the Far East,
which would be far more attractive to the European television
companies.
The Malaysian Grand Prix, on the same time as neighbouring
Singapore, is broadcast live at a time when many European viewers
are still in bed.
"I would like to do one or two night races. It could be good in
Japan or China," the Briton told reporters in Abu Dhabi last
month.
Circuit designer Hermann Tilke said recently that advances in
technology had made the concept of night races, a novelty for
Formula One, a realistic proposition.
"The basic problem is lighting," he told the Autosport Web site
(www.autosport.com) last month. "You need a certain amount of
brightness in order to allow the cameras to show the cars properly
and not as a blurred streak.
"But then again, both in lighting systems and in camera technology,
we have seen tremendous developments so I cannot imagine that those
would be real problems."
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6458348,00.html
