Formula One is in Singapore for its first night grand prix and it is going to be a huge success. Seeing F1 cars in full flight at night under artificial light definitely brings an added dimension to the experience. All of the senses are heightened, and the atmosphere as the screaming cars took to the track for the first time on Friday evening was electrifying.

The lighting makes the cars look even better. With the feast of curves on the Ferrari, for example, and because it has a solid coat of metallic deep red, the lighting seems to bring the machine alive, making it appear almost molten.

It is also a brilliant venue, although as you would expect a few tweaks will be needed, particularly when it comes to the pit entry and exit lanes, one or two areas of the bumpy surface and a clumsy chicane at the back of the track.

This truly is a city-centre venue. It winds its way beneath an eight-lane flyover and there are neon-lit buildings and other key landmarks. Much of the track is everyday streets, with their awkward cambers and bumps and general street furniture of manhole covers and white lines. Numerous painted arrows and “Slow” signs, often pointing against the F1 flow, only add to the effect.

I visited this venue back in February when work was in the early stages, and in the few intervening months they have created a world-class venue with the added complication of a lighting system. The sport needs variety, with traditional venues such as Monza and Silverstone, the new, glossy large-scale domes we see in places such as Turkey and China, and street circuits such as here and in Monaco. Together they help form the texture of the sport. If Singapore is a success, we will surely see other night races.

It all makes for long days, though. Many of the drivers and teams are staying on European time, which is logical given that Singapore is seven hours ahead of UK time. Initially I was sceptical because after 26 years of following F1 I reckon the body clock is solar-powered and automatically adjusts to daylight. They have blacked out the drivers’ hotel room windows and technical debriefs are carried out at normal intervals, albeit in the early hours of the morning. They are then sleeping into the following afternoon, although it’s a horrible feeling when darkness falls a few short hours after first brushing your teeth. We have Singapore, Japan and China over four weekends now and so everybody in the paddock needs to pace themselves.

The lighting works well here. During Friday practice at Monza two weeks ago when a thunderstorm surrounded the circuit, the light reading was half what it is here under the floodlights. Drivers were splashing around in the rain at 210mph in Monza in much worse visibility than they are likely to face here. So even if it does rain — and apparently it has rained on this weekend in Singapore for the past 10 years — I don’t think it will be impossible to race.

Stadium officials were switching sections of the lights on and off to test them, and if they do fail it’s not going to be a case of following the safety car, as they would have to immediately red flag the event. Drivers tried to use yellow helmet visors to enhance the light but that wasn’t considered a success. Many are, however, complaining that there are dark spots out on the track which are difficult at 190mph, but all are revelling in the general challenge.

I found when racing in the Le Mans 24-Hour race that you don’t need much light to go very quickly. The braking, turn in and apex points quickly get dialled into your subconscious and total visibility is much less important than you would assume. At Le Mans in the middle of the night, inevitably one of your headlights will have packed in and the screen will be pitted and oil-smeared. Yet remarkably, it doesn’t seem to matter much. The lux values are necessarily high here for the TV pictures, the sponsors, and in case of an accident.

I did notice that my night vision deteriorated as I got older, but that shouldn’t be an issue with any of the F1 jockeys as the oldest of them is 37. I thought they might have held one daylight practice session just to get those reference points hard-wired into them, but all of the F1 running has been at night. Something needs to be done about the pit entry and exit because in both instances there is a dangerous mismatch of speeds between cars on a flying lap and those using the pits, each briefly needing the same piece of road. The drivers have created their own solution to the pit exit problem by cutting inside turn one when exiting into traffic, and I’m surprised this has not been officially adopted.

The turn 10 chicane is a poor solution on several counts. It’s at the end of a very long, fast straight with a minimal run-off area. Then it pinches in a lane’s width for a one-at-a-time bounce across the three kerbs fitted with evil vertical concrete launch pads. The ride height of an F1 car at that speed will be around half an inch at the front, maybe an inch at the back — and the concrete disincentives are considerably higher than that.

One slight misjudgment or problem and they could either be launched by these concrete pads for an early chat with the wall, as Giancarlo Fisichella found out, or simply rip the underneath of the car, the very part where the driver sits.