What about the Aussies?

Bernie Ecclestone has one again changed his mind over the future of F1 in Australia when the FOM announced that the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne will continue to host the Australian Grand Prix until 2015 last week. From 2009 onwards the Grand Prix will start at 5:00pm local time (6:00am GMT), one hour and a half later than this years race start.

At the beginning of the season, Bernie had said he wanted the Australian race to take place at night to make viewing times more appropriate for European audiences. This year the race start in GMT was 4:30am which was described by Bernie as "Unacceptable." Just before this years race, Bernie threatened to kick the Melbourne race off the calendar after 2010 saying "At the moment, it is ridiculous that people are asked not to sleep in order to see it live. That can't carry on. The alternative is to pull the race completely from Australia. I've spoken to (Australian prime minister) Kevin Rudd and he's told me it would cost too much to re-stage the race, so I guess that's it. We won't be going to Australia for too much longer."

When offered a 5:00pm race start, Ecclestone insisted that was not enough to keep the race. "A 5:00pm start doesn't help a lot, that's not really what we are looking for. It needs to be a night race" but the event organisers responded saying "We've made it absolutely clear that there will be no night Grand Prix race in Melbourne. We don't support it now, we don't support it post-2010. We can't be more unequivocal than that." It turns out that the Australian race organisers were right to stand there ground as Bernie turned his opinion of a 5am start around saying last week "I'm satisfied that the decision to move to a later start time for 2009 races is a win for television audiences in Europe and Asia, a win for Melbourne and a win for Formula One as a whole."

The Australian Grand Prix is likely to remain the first event on the calendar for the next few seasons, but this is just another example of the head of the FOM's threats coming to nothing.