Bernie Ecclestone has expressed his desire to possibly change the Baku Grand Prix into a night race, an adaptation he believes could add further thrills to what F1 bosses have labelled an exciting event.
After what was deemed to be a highly successful race in the Azerbaijan capital last weekend, the F1 Chief has agreed that there would not be much he would change about the venue, except for maybe running it later in the day, and seeing it become the third night race to be included on the F1 calendar. Speaking to motorsport.com recently Ecclestone relayed his thoughts, re-iterating that he was happy with what the organisers had been able to achieve, with no amendments required.
“Not really. We need to have a good think about it, but I don’t think so.
“They could open the streets a bit more. They’re going to do that for sure. This year was difficult, because they didn’t know.
“I’d like to see a 7pm start. We’ll find out, they’re looking at it.”
Though Formula One management are calling the 2016 European Grand Prix event a success, the race itself did not quite live up to expectations. After what had been a lively and incident packed Friday and Saturday for the practice and qualifying sessions, very little action was evident in the race itself, and on top of that it was difficult for fans at home to get a feel for the high speeds that were being generated, something that was considered a real pulling point for the track, via the TV footage provided.
Despite that however, Ecclestone was pleased with the efforts made by the Baku organisers, indicating that other locations currently holding a grand prix event or those that are considering it, should take a leaf out of their book.
“It’s super, very, very good. If all the places that we go to made the effort that these people have made here, it would be fantastic, they’ve done an incredible job.
“The circuit’s turned out to be really good as well. When we laid out the circuit, there were one or two ways we could have changed it, but I wanted to go past the old castle. It looks good.”
