Lewis Hamilton proposes major F1 shake-up after 'epic' realisation

Lewis Hamilton has proposed the idea that more F1 grands prix should be run at night after his "epic" realisation about the Bahrain GP. 

On the original 2026 calendar, six races - Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi were set to be run at night, with there remaining the possibility that only Singapore and Las Vegas go ahead owing to the Middle Eastern races being cancelled due to the Iran War.

This sextet of races marks one-quarter of the 24-race calendar being run at night, with Bahrain originally serving as a day race when it joined the calendar in 2004, with the 2005 race being measured as the hottest grand prix in history, with temperatures peaking at 42.8 degrees Celsius 

For 2014, the race shifted to a night race, and has been a staple of the calendar since. 

But F1's first night race was the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, with Hamilton recalling over the recent Marina Bay weekend conversations held with Bahraini officials over its race time - and how more races could make the switch in future.

"I love the night races. I remember when this one was being brought on, and we did the test on the simulator back in the day when I was at McLaren," Hamilton recalled of the first Singapore GP to media, including RacingNews365. 

"It did obviously an amazing job with the lighting, and then we've had that at other places. I remember speaking with [Crown Prince] Salman, and we were testing and running in Bahrain in the middle of the hottest day ever, and the tyres and whole cars were melting.

"I said: 'This place will look epic at night', and then years later, they ended up doing a night race there.

"So I think in some places it works really well, particularly really extreme hot places, where if you're in the middle of the day, like in Qatar, it's probably going to be miserable for the fans, but also for everyone in the paddock. 

"So some of the night races, I think, are really cool. We were just in Madrid, and it's beautiful during the day. 

"I was like: 'This could also be cool at night, and many of the tracks could be.'

"So who knows? Maybe having the option to switch between that over time would be a cool development for tracks."

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