Staging a Formula One (F1) Grand Prix is more akin to a military operation than hosting a normal sporting event and Michael Roche, the executive director of Singapore GP – the world’s first ever F1 night race – freely admits he initially underestimated the task at hand.

From consultation with urban planners and marketers to lighting technicians and track engineers, the logistics of staging an event of this magnitude were challenging.

A night race of this type had never been attempted before: there were problems that had never been encountered before, and there were disparate professional disciplines and technical skills that had never had to work together before.

Roche says to get the event off the ground, his team was able to draw on a deep pool of local Singapore talent, a strong can-do ethos, and a unique outlook which the city calls collective creativity – a collaborative approach that uses the sum of its parts to solve problems.

“When we first signed a very simple document with the F1 management, there wasn’t a 2000-page rider to describe what you have to do – you had to fathom it out yourself,” he says, sitting in the garages which are the engine rooms of the night race.

While his team knew the city well and had finessed where the track needed to go, it became clear that hosting the event was going to involve more than simply fast cars and cheering spectators.

“I took a very simple view,” Roche says, as he reminisced about the first race in 2008. “I thought what we needed were entry gates, temporary toilet facilities, some food and beverage around the grandstand and off we go. “I held that view for about two weeks before realising that it was going to be a little bit more complicated than that.”

The race was still an aspiration at this stage. While the F1 Grand Prix had been held as a street race in Monaco, none had been held in such a dense and bustling city as Singapore and certainly none had ever been staged at night.

Roche says that Singapore’s unique mix of cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary talent, easy access to top international skills and the city’s sheer will to see the race happen as an international event meant that the night race exceeded his wildest expectations.

“It’s part of the modern Singapore outlook – there’s very much a can-do spirit here,” he says.

To deliver a world-class event right in the heart of a downtown modern functioning city, talent from all over the world was brought in to work alongside Singapore-based professionals and technicians.

Roche adds: “Whilst it was important for us to scour the world for the right talent, it was also important that these organisations were willing to share their knowledge with Singaporeans.”

The synergy of the collaboration resulted in seamless coordination of multiple parties and multiple skill sets, making it possible for the F1 race to go on without a glitch.

One of the critical factors was getting the three-day event together on time. With more than 300,000 ticket holders in Singapore for the event, more than 100 million television viewers, more than 20 state-of-the-art Formula One cars ready to carve up more than five kilometres of the city circuit, everything hinged on the many skilled talent coming together.

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“It wasn’t a greenfield site where we could just say to the landowner, this is what we are going to set up,” Roche says of the challenge of putting an F1 track through Singapore’s historic city centre, where colonial buildings sit shoulder-to-shoulder with modern skyscrapers.

For the first time, the race circuit was woven through the heart of a densely-populated metropolis, straddling retail and commercial districts. It took the combined effort of government agencies, urban planners, commercial partners and innovative talent to deliver a circuit that would exhilarate viewers while minimising disruption to business.

The Singapore circuit runs counter-clockwise, one of only three circuits in the world to do so. The race covers 14 left-hand turns and 10 right-hand turns within a five kilometres span, making for a dramatic mix of straights and tight turns.

Another daunting challenge of the first-ever night race was the lighting of the track. F1 cars do not have lights, and entire length of the circuit had to be brilliantly lit to ensure full visibility, with zero risk of failure in the event of rain or electrical blackouts. Technicians and government agencies came together to put 108km of cable, 6,300 aluminium trusses and 1,500 light projectors throughout a heritage city that enhanced the iconic buildings, landmarks and Singapore’s greenery.

“What we didn’t have was the luxury of space,” Roche explains. “It was an enormous jigsaw puzzle and it was, at times, very arduous.

“Singapore is also known as a Garden City, which means that preservation of trees is of paramount importance. As there are trees lining the street track, we had to install a sophisticated lighting system that co-existed in harmony with them.”

With its unique set of challenges, the night race is increasingly becoming a Grand Prix that could only take place in Singapore. Roche says the city has been successful in taking ownership of its place in the F1 firmament.

“When you see those helicopter shots looking down on the circuit at night and the commentators say ‘the world is watching’, that makes people very proud,” he says.

“We couldn’t have pulled off the F1 race in Singapore if not for the collective efforts of the multi-disciplinary talent based in Singapore. The availability of skilled manpower, a cosmopolitan workforce and the supportive environment helped overcome the challenges of organising the first night race in F1 history.”

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