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I love it where it is now... even when it was 6 am UK time... as the first race of the season its fantastic...

You stay up late / get up early, the excitement building, who is going to be where, what drivers are going to stand out, what do the new cars actually look like in the flesh...

the clock is ticking, you feel tired.. but then you hear the opening sequence to the first race, you are suddenly wide awake.. and ready to watch the start of the new season...


that's my take, and with this new option of SKY, another unknown quality of waiting to find out what its like, its exciting, all these unknowns!

Staying up late / getting up early for that first race of the season, me personally, you just cannot beat it.
So Bernie do not change it!

thoughts PF1?

Put it back to 2am UK time / 12pm local please.

I preferred it then. 6am is such an awful time to get up and stay up for.

Much prefer the 6am start, I normally get an earlish night, wake up for the race then have a few more hours after it finishes.

Loved the race starting in the early hours -there was a 'romance' about staying up and waiting for it.
The race starts at 8am for me now, meaning I'll have to wake up at 6.30 - There's no romance to be found in that.

One of the few races Australia gets to watch at a normal time so, you know, I'd prefer it to stay where it is.

6 am is nothing to ever complain about. sure its early, but honestly, you just have to roll out of bed turn on the TV via the kettle and you're watching the best sport in the world.

I personally would like the Aus GP to be a night race cause i think it would be cool

The European viewer isn't going to get any sympathy from someone from the Americas. The Asian races are in the middle of the night, which there are more and more of lately, and the European races are at 8am. I've tried time and time again to get my friends interested in F1 but my efforts become futile when I mention 8am on a Sunday.

As for Australia, keep it where it is.

OnAGivenDay wrote:The European viewer isn't going to get any sympathy from someone from the Americas. The Asian races are in the middle of the night, which there are more and more of lately, and the European races are at 8am. I've tried time and time again to get my friends interested in F1 but my efforts become futile when I mention 8am on a Sunday.

As for Australia, keep it where it is.

In LA, those European races are on at 5am. The good thing is that the far east races are about 11pm-1am, so much easier to watch.

Because Australian GP has one of the best scenery on the F1 calendar with the beautiful lake, palm trees and blue sky. I don't care what time of the day what days of the week I will watch F1 when it is on TV.

I know Bernie wants night races for viewer numbers, but have them on Tilke tracks with dull scenery like China, Bahrain or Turkey I don't care, but not Australia.

floydhead wrote:Loved the race starting in the early hours -there was a 'romance' about staying up and waiting for it.
The race starts at 8am for me now, meaning I'll have to wake up at 6.30 - There's no romance to be found in that.

Its like that for most races when you live in Australia.

Its so weird the F1 being on during the day. Personally I love the typical 11pm race start time. It means everyone else is in bed and I can watch the Formula 1 in peace. I'm usually tired the next morning for work but I just catch up on sleep the next day.

Makes absolutely no difference to me. Dont care when the race starts anywhere. We know the calender well in advance, I adjust my Sunday and if needed Saturday sleep time according to the race time.
As always there is always resistance to change. But as far as watching F1 on Television is concerned, it makes no difference. I dont pay any attention to anything but the track and cars and maybe grand stands when race is on. And for me the desert is as beautiful as trees and lakes. I dont understand the fuzz television watchers create over suggestion of change in race times. If anything its other things like financial matters that would be justifiable to not have night race. Anything else does not matter, definitely not night race. Does not matter where it is.
I watched Australian GP when it used to start in at around 5:30- 6AM local time few years back, and now its at 11. Does not make any difference to me as a television viewer of Australian GP.

The only thing that bothered me was when the race was still running when I had to leave for work on Sunday morning. So either earlier at night, or later in the morning is fine by me.

What puzzles me is that Bernie seems to think fans prefer not to do anything else on a Sunday, just watch an artificially lit track at some stage during a lovely day. And that's not even taking into account the problems fans may have getting back home from the race track when Bernie puts the races on in the evening, so he can ruin our lovely Sundays.

To maximize TV viewing figures, bringing in casual viewers is required, and you can't make that happen at 6 AM.

Bernie sets the calender and schedule, and for him it's all about making money.

Living on the Western coast of Australia, love actually having it when it is (5pm Melbourne is 2pm here) its like having the race when it's on for most the season in Europe, at the right start time, we're very lucky in WA, European races are in prime time (8pm start), Asian/Australia (afternoon/early evening), it's only the American races where to issue of do we got sleep for a couple of hours and then get up or grabbing the red bull to stay up till 2am (or in the case of 2011 Canadian Race; 6 am finish and many Red Bulls to see a Bull, lose it on the last lap, still worth it by far).

Keep Melbourne, number one and keep it where it is, it's a World Championship, you need it on every continent

If Bernie knows the biggest viewing figures worldwide are in Europe, the why is he so bothered about getting all the far east races? Money both ways for viewing figures and go ernments willing to foot the hosting fees - he can't have it both ways.

I like the race where it is now, anyone with kids knows that 6am is a fairly normal time to get up and watching a GP is much better then Roary or Fifi! I'm often at work by 7:30 anyway so it's fine for me!

I've never watched the Australian GP live. I once tried to watch the qualy, but I ended up sleeping through it. And I woke up for the race, but somehow fell asleep before I had fully managed to get out of bed.

Ofcourse Australia GP needs to be in the evening. Those of us who lives in Scandinavia need to get up at 8 o'clock in the morning - on a Sunday - to watch the race. And 6 o'clock in the morning - on a Saturday - to watch qualifying. That is the worst time for us who love to sleep late in the weekend .

I know there are quite a few who do not care about the 6am start time, but those who do are by no way extremely disadvantaged by the time of the races. I mean, North and South American viewers have it rough, followed by those in East Asia, Mid to Eastern Australia and New Zealand.

I understand the idea of night races in Australia and Asia for viewing figures in Europe but with the push into Asia and America, would it not make sense to allow those continents to watch them at more respectable times to help expand the sport in those key markets?

floydhead wrote:Loved the race starting in the early hours -there was a 'romance' about staying up and waiting for it.
The race starts at 8am for me now, meaning I'll have to wake up at 6.30 - There's no romance to be found in that.

You can often finder romance at 6.30am in the morning.
Just give her a nudge in the back and tell her she's getting it

Back to the race, I was in favour of the 2am UK start time, when the alarm would go off and You would have to drag yourself to the kitchen for that 1st coffee.

minchy wrote:If Bernie knows the biggest viewing figures worldwide are in Europe, the why is he so bothered about getting all the far east races? Money both ways for viewing figures and go ernments willing to foot the hosting fees - he can't have it both ways.

I like the race where it is now, anyone with kids knows that 6am is a fairly normal time to get up and watching a GP is much better then Roary or Fifi! I'm often at work by 7:30 anyway so it's fine for me!

It doesn't matter where the race is as long as it is showed at right time on tv. Bernie doesn't get money from tickets.