Full throttle under floodlights

Next weekend, on 28 September, the first ever night Grand Prix will be held at the all-new street circuit of Singapore. In order to organise such a special event, a state-of-the-art lighting system is an absolute necessity.

The system will feature a total of 1600 lighting projectors attached to aluminium trusses, which will be suspended 10 metres above the track on vertical steel pylons which will be mounted on prefabricated concrete blocks, placed behind the barriers at intervals of 32m.

This will involve a total of 240 steel pylons and a mind boggling 108,423m of cables. The system will be powered by 12 twin-power generators, each located in a sound-proof container. Should one of the generators fail, the other generators will provide a back-up power by default. Each generator will also have its own engineer on standby whenever they are in operation. The resulting light will be four times brighter than the lighting in a normal sports arena.

The lights will be situated on only one side of the street circuit. Colin Syn, the deputy chairman of the Singapore GP explained: “This is to prevent the drivers from being disorientated in cases of spinning." Mr. Syn also declared that the run-off areas will be brighter than the actual track.

This new challenge for the drivers and the teams will take place at the all-new street circuit around Marina Bay and in the streets of Singapore. If you already want to discover the circuit, you can drive along with Mark Webber (www.redbullracing.com/4th-Sector/Webber-Singapore/) or Sebastian Vettel (www.tororosso.com/4th-Sector/Vettel-Singapore/)