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SINGAPORE: While 11 Formula 1 teams work frantically to get their cars in top gear ahead of Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, race ringmaster, Mr Bernie Ecclestone, is still in Singapore for at least another day of talks about bringing a race here next year.
The Briton arrived on Monday and is expected to meet Singapore's Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr S Iswaran, before leaving Thursday for the opening race of the 2007 Formula 1 season in Melbourne.
Mr Ecclestone has been in separate negotiations with local hotel and property tycoon Ong Beng Seng and luxury marina club developer Arthur Tay to bring a race to Singapore.
Both men are bound by a strict non-disclosure agreement.
Since arriving in Singapore, the Formula 1 boss has met Mr Ong but has yet to meet Mr Tay.
Sources say the Singapore race could be held in April or August 2008 and that it would be the first night race in the history of the sport.
Last week, Mr Iswaran told Parliament that the Government was taking a serious look at hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
He said the Government was willing to be a partner in the project and to offer financial and other support.
Before arriving in Singapore, Mr Ecclestone told the British daily Mail on Sunday that he wanted 20 races on the Formula 1 calendar next year, up from 17 this season.
With the bulk of the television audience - 350 million a race - in Europe, the 76-year-old added that he was looking at "three or four" night races in Asia, due to the time difference with Europe.
"Apart from the fact that it's a new development, and there will be a novelty factor behind it, the main reason is because so many of the Grand Prix are east of Europe and instead of having to watch them in the early hours of the morning, Europeans can instead watch them during the day if staged in the evenings in the East," Mr Ecclestone said.
"I think, for example, it's a terrible shame that the first Grand Prix of the new season should be staged in the afternoon in Australia ... Having to get up and watch it in the night over here is not the best way to get the show on the road."
The F1 boss also wants to make changes to the sport's points-scoring system for next year.
The current format awards 10 points for a win, eight for second, down to one for eighth, but Mr Ecclestone wants to give more points to the race winner.
In the last two years, drivers such as Fernando Alonso, preferred not to challenge leading cars when they had an overall points advantage in the drivers' standings.
"With second place getting eight points, it is not right that the winner takes only 10," said Mr Ecclestone, who introduced the current system in 2003. "For 2008, I will propose a change. The guy who wins more should be champion." - TODAY/yy
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