Lewis Hamilton supports idea for F1 night race in New York
Lewis Hamilton says he likes the idea that a second US GP in New York should be run at night.
An event was originally scheduled for 2013 at Port Imperial, with the track linking the New Jersey towns of Weehawken and West New York, but it fell off the calendar for financial reasons.
New F1 owners Liberty are now hoping to revive a New York area event, and have indicated that they want it to be a night race.
“That would be very cool,” said Hamilton when asked about the idea. “New York is a Grand Prix I think we should definitely have. I think two Grands Prix in the States is something we should put in the calendar. I think it will be incredible, such a great city with such a great back drop from New Jersey, and being at night.
“Even during the day it’s fine, it’s not too extreme conditions. Perhaps a twilight kind of race? The sunset is pretty crazy over the city, so a bit like Bahrain, where you’re going from sun setting to evening, would be perfect.”
Meanwhile, Bernie Ecclestone has expressed doubts about the chances of Liberty successfully reviving the race originally planned for New Jersey.
“I’d be surprised if they got New Jersey off the ground,” he said. “Because it’s very complicated. You have to go through two little towns, and all sorts of things. Since I started a lot of things have changed.
“But I put them in touch with the people we were originally dealing with, with the cities and everything. So everything’s there on a plate, except they’ve built on a lot of things that we were going to us. And they’ll have to come up with the money. We could have done it, but it was expensive.”
